Morning light streams through the trees along the Little River near Bethlehem Church Road in Floyd County and water flows over the rocks in one of the many streams that feeds the river.

Little patches of yellow started appearing all over our yard this week.

Daffodils.

You have to understand we bought this house on December 3 of last year. Winter (well, late Fall actually). We knew the property had a lot of tress (mostly pine and poplars), a weeping willow tree along the stream that flows through the front yard and a whole bunch of rhododendrons.

OK class. Today’s photographic assignment is to capture the essence of wind. No, not just photograph wind. Capture its “essence.” To make the assignment more challenging, do it this time of year before rich colors cover the landscape. Ah, there’s the rub.

It starts as a distant rumble and flashes of light that catch the corner of your eye. You see the light and start counting, stopping when the rumble rattles the windows. Rule of thumb says five seconds make up a mile. That’s how far away the lightning strikes occur.

A foggy vista near Interstate 81 southwest of Christiansburg. Rain is probably the only thing that will dissipate the fog that has covered Southwestern Virginia for the past two days and the talking heads on the tube say rain is coming in buckets.