Gathering Storm

Cooper and I forego breakfast and head out for a quick romp on the back forty east of our home. We want to beat the storm approaching out of the Texas Panhandle.

Anxious anticipation colors the mood of the Llano Estacado. Lively outflow winds from distant downpours carry that familiar, pleasant scent of rain. Ahead of us veils of cloudbursts drape across the prairie from an ominous overcast. Behind us baby blue skies bestow a magical backdrop for ethereal puffs of clouds. In every direction cotton top grass panicles ripple across the shortgrass prairie in wind-driven waves of silk. With every step across the tableland I encounter desperate mantras of “we need rain” gasping from the cracked and blistered soil. Cooper makes several unproductive attempts to flush jack rabbit running buddies from the sea of grass. He soon abandons primal urges and resigns himself to amble down trails and ranch roads just ahead of his dawdling human sidekick.

- © Ilija Lukić 2013 -

Storm Over Texas

Scarlet Globemallow
(sphaeralcea coccinea)

Gathering Storm
(Cooper)

Let The Sun Shine
(helianthus annuus, aka Annual Sunflower)

Cotton On Baby Blue

Waves Of Silk
(digitaria californica, aka Arizona Cottontop)

We Need Rain

Looking For Jack...Rabbit, That Is
(Cooper)

Knock, Knock...We're Home
(Cooper)