Northern Lights

Stephen woke us up at 5:20 this morning to mention that the aurora was doing its thing in the sky.  We haven't seen the aurora borealis since last spring.  But, it has been seen in recent weeks by others. 

Normally, the best time to see the lights is in the middle of the night when the sky is cloudless.  Generally, I'm sleeping in the middle of the night.  Apparently, these northern lights were dancing up a storm all night long.  Several friends posted on Facebook that they were watching the best aurora they'd ever seen.  I was asleep.  The photos posted here were taken by one of those friends from her back deck.  She lives on the adjacent hillside from us.  So, I took liberties.... Thanks, Selena!

We caught the tail end of the show, I think.  Even so, the lights were very active.  They filled the sky with a dancing and swooping display of green.  Behind the lights, the stars shone brightly.  We even saw a shooting star. 

Stephen attempted to take our new pooch, Buster, for a quick walk.  But, they made a rapid retreat when they heard twigs snapping next to the neighbors house as their dogs went nuts.  We figure it was either a moose or a bear.  He didn't stick around long enough to find out which.

Just to catch up, we've adopted a 2+ year old Blue Heeler named Buster.  He's been mistreated, so we're working with him.  For those who don't know (this included me a few days ago), heelers are instinctual herders.  And, in the absence of cattle, Buster has decided it's his job to herd US.  He's very diligent about this task.  It's kind of amusing.  Well, except that first night when we didn't crate him and he spent the whole night trying to herd us all into the same room.  If it hadn't been cloudy, we probably could've seen some nice aurora, since we were all up in the middle of the night!