The rain finally departed—not that I'm really complaining... we certainly need all the drought-busting precipitation we can get—and I've been, at last, able to get out for a long trek without always looking over my shoulder for dark clouds that carry the means to destroy my dSLR. But the need to meet writing deadlines made it impossible—not that I'm complaining about having work—to hit the trail until fairly late in the day, so I simply hiked up the street to the Bell Cedar Swamp Preserve and made my way down the muddy logging road that serves as the refuge main trail. Despite the fact that I came ready to photograph birds, they had different ideas, and, over a mile or two, never put in an appearance. At least I didn't attract any ticks, which, not surprisingly in this generally non-winter, are still to be discovered on the cats, as well as on my clothes and, this week, skin. So it was a quiet day in the natural world, but then, at sunset, things got very interesting. I'm a Harry Potter fan, and this ominous and spectacular cloud formation made me look for the appearance of the Dark Mark... well, maybe the start of another rain cycle. More likely, what I was seeing was the tail end of the storm, and the start of clearing.