Prairiestorm Imagery: Fireworks and poser kittens.

Back in Illinois now after an excellent 4th of July holiday. As is tradition, my family spend the weekend at our lake house in central Wisconsin. I couldn't get enough of the lake this weekend, as this time of the year is about as perfect as it gets for that place. If you've never swam in a natural spring fed lake, you're missing out big time. My uncle described it perfectly this weekend as swimming in "liquid silk", and I couldn't agree more.

We did the typical small town fireworks display in Oxford, a tiny town of 400 that has Chicago style traffic jams following the display. They do it up right, and people have begun taking notice and flock from all over the area to pack into that small centrally located park for the display on Saturday night.

The weather couldn't have been better, aside from the drizzle experienced on Monday. Friday and Saturday one had a heck of a time trying to find a single cloud anywhere in the mid-west. Sunday was patchy, with some awesome downpours that I was lucky enough to experience while swimming in the middle of the lake. Going along with swimming in a natural spring fed lake, if one has never swam in the middle of a lake in a torrential down pour, you're also missing out. It's an experience hard to describe.

Then, there were the new kittens that a stray had given birth to at the ranch across the street. One of the kittens took quite a liking to my family and began whoring it up each day. She or he decided to go for a posing session for me and was really milking it in front of the camera.

I felt like I had more to update when driving home last night, but am short on words at the moment. Nothing interesting weather wise recently, or in the near future. Just had a brief downpour with the sun shining here in DeKalb as one of the puffy cumulus clouds in the area decided to burst. I'd love nothing more than to get a twilight or night display from a little pulse thunderstorm but have zero hopes in that happening, though the chance is there this week. Nothing severe at all forecasted, but perhaps a decent photogenic treat will be thrown my way.

Until then, here are a few fireworks photos along with a few shots of the kittens from the weekend in Wisconsin.

If I'm not standing under a mesocyclone, this is the one place in the world I wish I was every day:

Each time I go, I plan on spending more time on star trails, but once nightfall arrives I'm so burnt out from the days activities that I can't bring myself to get out there. The above shot was taken the night I arrived back to the lake after the Bowdle, SD chase.

I really liked this one simply because it shows the involved danger with attending small town fireworks displays. Don't want to be under those falling embers hitting the ground! :) It's a definite experience to be under the "fall out" and seeing sparkly colors falling right on top of you.