Sun Pillar

I saw a sun pillar this morning just after 6 a.m. It lasted about 5-10 seconds, just as the sun was rising and disappearing behind heavy cloud cover. The sun turned the clouds into a shade of mauve, and the pillar shone like a golden beacon into the morning sky. If you don’t know what a sun pillar is, here’s a link to a nice picture. (www.spaceweather.com/swpod2006/21mar06/clark1.jpg). In fact my own sighting was very similar to how this picture looks, (though the sky was not as dark) as one of the snowmaking ponds was in the front of my view, and trees line the back of that pond. The Spaceweather site is one I frequent, as they always have interesting information about what’s going on in the sky at the moment.

Last night, after dark, I was cleaning up the evening dishes when Baby Dog starting barking, just a yip or two at first, but she wouldn’t stop and was soon joined in sympathy barks by Dog. Eventually, I was forced to look out the front door, as I’ve learned they won’t stop barking when they think they hear something until I do my duty as mistress of the cabin and make sure there are No Evil Monsters out there. I looked out, didn’t see anything and went back to work. The barking stopped momentarily, then got worse, and this time when I looked out the front of the cabin door, I saw a huge raccoon gobbling up the last of the food I put out for the semi-feral cats. This raccoon was a beauty with gorgeous fur and tail, and in size it was the mother of all raccoons. The raccoon was snaking its paws into the body of the cat feeder, reaching up inside it and pulling out the cat food, piece by piece. At one point, one of the wild cats jumped up on the deck, saw the raccoon and froze. It stayed that way for a few moments and then fled into the night.