Snow and shadows

I woke up to sunshine and blue skies this morning, which actually came as a bit of a shock—it's been so long since we've had a truly clear day, I'd almost forgotten that the sky comes in colors other than shades of gray.

Naturally, I couldn't resist photographing my neighbor's barn against the new backdrop, especially since it still has such picturesque snow piled on the roof:



I fully intended to stay away from bird pics today, but while I was working on a Sudoku this morning I happened to glance up in time to see an unfamiliar bird on my feeder. So I grabbed my camera and managed to take a few photos of it before it flew off; when I consulted my bird book, I discovered I'd played host to a Carolina Wren:



Finally, our sunny day meant I got to take photos of various shadows against the unbroken snow, which I find sometimes make for a more interesting than the objects themselves:

Quiet Saturday

An evening spent enjoying a great meal with my family and some good friends has left me in one of those digestive stupors where you can barely muster enough brainpower to change into pants with an elastic waistband, much less try and put coherent sentences together. Which is why I'm going to keep this brief: between the busy parking lot this morning and snow squalls this afternoon, visitors to my bird feeder were few and far between. So I brought my camera along to my parents' house, as we'd made plans to carpool to the restaurant, and managed to take a few pictures there before it got too dark for outdoor photography.

A Junco searching for seeds in a patch of grass it'd just cleared off:



Puffed up against the cold:



And a Chickadee on the thistle feeder:



Finally, a photo of Kaylee; for whatever reason, she decided to sequester herself behind the couch for most of the afternoon, and while she did emerge briefly to say hello when I arrived it didn't take her long to squeeze herself back there once again:

Happy accidents

As I uploaded the photos I'd selected for posting today, I realized they all had something in common: they all arguably came out better than the picture I'd been trying to take.

I'd certainly describe this first image as the result of intent and dumb luck. Intent in that I was trying to capture the color and texture of the bark; dumb luck that the mossy tree behind it, which I didn't even notice, ended up providing such great contrast:



More dumb luck—this chickadee moved just as I took the photo, giving me a nifty action shot:



When I got home this evening it was snowing pretty hard. As I was throwing Kaylee's rubber stick for her to chase, I thought I'd see if I could get a picture with some of the falling snow in focus. So I did a focus capture on one object, then took the actual picture with the lens aimed at a different spot where whatever was in the frame was further away. It didn't even remotely work. But fortune once again smiled on me, as I still ended up with an interesting picture anyway:



And of course, Kaylee. I took the first one this morning as she stood on the back porch gazing at something out in front of the house:



And one taken inside a few minutes later, when Kaylee was so eager for me to put the camera away and give her her treat already that she climbed up in a chair and alternated between staring at me and pawing at my pocket:

Winter Wonderland 2: Electric Boogaloo

So, it pretty much didn't stop snowing from early afternoon yesterday to early afternoon today. Which resulted in more than a foot of snow on the porch and even more where it drifted in the woods—there were spots where I'm certain I'd have sunk in to my mid-thigh if I didn't have snowshoes on.

Starting things off, a look at the birdfeeders when Kaylee and I first went out this morning—somehow I managed to catch a chickadee on its way in as well as the one on the top of the hook:



A shot of the woods:



I liked the effect here of the contrast between the snow and the branches:



This one... I can't even begin to explain. Just about every tree had at least an inch of snow stuck all along one side, as you can see with the others in the shot. Some had areas where a portion of the snow had been knocked off by the wind, birds, or other branches, but for the most part the snow looked like it'd been laid down with a caulk gun. But I don't have a clue as to how this straight sapling ended up with snow spiraling along its length—especially when it's not even touching the tree in one area:



A few shots where Kaylee assists in indicating how deep the snow was in the woods...



...on the porch...



...and where it'd been left by the snowplow after the driveway had been cleared:



The temperature rose in the afternoon, which resulted in the precipitation changing over to the classic "wintry mix" and the trees losing most of their snow cover. Naturally the trees got very wet, enabling me to get this nice bit of contrast between the leaves, snow, and darkened trunk:



Finally, two pics of Kaylee I couldn't choose between. I liked the mood of this one:



And the cuteness of snow-covered Kaylee in this one:

One down, eleven to go

Wow. Once this entry is posted, I'll have successfully gotten through the first month of my self-imposed challenge. As there were days I seriously doubted whether or not I'd be able to say that on the 31st, I'm pretty psyched to have made it this far.

Today's posting is my biggest yet. I'd like to say it was a conscious decision on my part in order to commemorate the occasion, but in truth it's because I took a bunch of pictures I was really pleased with and didn't feel like having to choose between them.

This morning the temperature was -2.4 when I got ready to take Kaylee out. Deciding I couldn't wimp out two days in a row, I settled for the compromise of taking Kaylee over to the small stream that cuts through the woods rather than doing the usual loop. Given the sights that greeted me, I'm extremely glad I did so—the rising sun + running water + freezing temperature = gorgeous photo ops:













When Kaylee began to wander up the mountain as we headed for home and was pretending not to hear me whistle and call "Come Kaylee!", I chose a tactic I knew was virtually guaranteed to get her by my side: I yelled "You want to go for a ride?" As I'd hoped, she nearly broke the land speed record getting over to me. When I stopped a moment to try and photograph the stuff frozen on her chin whiskers, she informed me in no uncertain terms that there was to be a lot less photography and a lot more walking on my part:



Kaylee then proceeded to spend the rest of the trip back sprinting ahead of me for a bit, and then sprinting back to make sure I was still moving at a fast enough pace for her. When we got to the house, I realized that all of her running back and forth in the cold air—and, more importantly, through her own exhalations—had resulted in a coating of frost on her neck and chest:



After we'd picked up the newspapers and donuts downtown, I couldn't resist pulling into a parking lot so I could go take these photos of a frosted-over tree by the river, right where it drops off next to the old mill:





I'm happy to report that I did make it home before the donuts froze solid, although I did let them warm up a bit before digging in.

My deepest thanks to everyone who's been visiting and commenting on this blog. I very much appreciate all of your support and encouragement, and it makes me happy to know other folks have been enjoying this project as well. Thank you.

Cuteness Advisory Alert

Fair warning: the final picture in today's post might just overload the "Awww..." section of your brain.

But first, a couple of photos I took this morning. As Kaylee and I began our morning constitutional (with the temperature right around 3°), I turned and looked back at the house from the edge of the woods and liked the effect of the smoke spiraling up toward the clouds:



I shot this one at about the halfway point of our journey, just after the sun had cleared the top of the mountains:



Our first Kaylee pic comes from lunchtime, when in lieu of a trip up into the woods I threw a rubber stick to try and get her some exercise. Clearly she takes great pride in her retrieval skills:



And finally... well, I think it's just too adorable for words, myself:

Advil, take me away...

After three walks with Kaylee today, I suspect it'll take a crane and/or a forklift to get me upright and ambulatory tomorrow morning. The dog in question is currently stretched out on my parents' bed, dead to the world, a spot she's occupied for at least the last 90 minutes. Even refilling her food bowl had no effect, so you know we're talking some serious tired there.

When we returned home from our first walk this morning it was still pretty chilly out. Most of the trees in the yard were covered in hoar frost and the sun had just cleared the mountains; these two shots are of my parents' apple trees as the light caught the frost on the branches:





During our second walk, I heard and was lucky enough to spot a pileated woodpecker. Better still, thanks to the wonder that is digital zoom I also managed to get a decent picture of it:



And finally, a couple of Kaylee images. Mom and Dad told me that lately Kaylee had taken up the habit of nudging them in the back of the leg on their way home from walks in order to make sure they gave her whatever remained of the cookies they'd brought along. Today I experienced it firsthand—and she is very persistent. If you're walking, she's bumping you constantly. If you stop, she sits and awaits your next move; during one of those pauses, all I had to do was turn to my left to get this photo:



And finally, the girl herself, fresh from dispatching yet another fearsome tree branch:

Here there be dragons... or tow trucks

This morning before work I swung back up by Kelly Stand Road to take a photo of the sign posted just after you start up the mountain. It cracked me up when I saw it the other day, and decided I should share the fun:



At lunchtime I drove around town for a bit. I took these two photos on a private road up past my dentist's office:





And this was taken over on the other side of town:



As of tomorrow I'll be heading over to my parents' place to hang out with Kaylee while they enjoy their annual vacation in Kauai. So there'll likely be a lot of dog pictures gracing this blog over the next few weeks. Consider yourselves warned.

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

Post title courtesy of Carl Reiner, as I was completely without inspiration of my own.

There's not really much of a story behind today's photos. As I drove to work this line of trees caught my eye because of the contrast between the foreground trees, the snow on their branches, and the pine trees in the background. And, happily, there was a parking lot right there for me to pull into.