"Go Outside!"

Occasionally it's a good thing to check your socials before bed.  I almost missed the Northern Lights last night!  

Apparently the last time we saw them here it never made the blog :'-(.  That makes me think it was two years ago, but I can't go back and verify.

The colors that time were purples and greens.  Last night was all about the red and we got streaks shooting up into the sky as well.  I can't even believe I am saying "that time"....and I'm trying not to overthink why I've now seen the Northern Lights three times in two decidedly not northern states.

The iPhone picks up extra light in "night mode" so the first two pictures were a little brighter than what you could see with just your naked eyes.  I did bump the over exposure down some to get a more realistic picture, but left them a little brighter because the skies were so pretty through the camera lens.  This bottom picture is what I was actually seeing standing out in the yard.

As soon as I saw we were getting good colors last night, I started making my calls.  While all of my friends, except  maybe one, I'd normally not call after 10:00 p.m., I did send out a call last night.  "Northern Lights! Go outside!"  

We shared pictures and exclamations and thank yous and one by one finally drifted off back to bed.  I settled in thinking about my night sky calendar picture choices and knew which one I should pick and the story that would go with it.

By morning light though, the choice between the two pictures I had in mind...the shot I was thinking of that would pair with the night sky stories had Lancelot and Gato as the feature, along with a full moon.  The other shot had Maisie and Short Round.  I already had a nice picture of Lancelot picked out for another month...and the other shot had Maisie and Short Round.

There's a pretty good chance that I am putting together our last farm calendar.  Tim is hoping to retire next year and without his in house printing service, the calendars are not really feasible.  I hate not telling all the good stories.  There may just be a couple of extra pages this year.