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.

Why am I even surprised?

After all the weather predictions and talk of fronts and whatnot, guess what I woke up to this morning? That's right: sunshine. So, after catching up on some of my t.v. viewing, I went for a little drive. First stop, the parking lot across from one of my favorite chocolate shops, which happens to be located close to the Battenkill tributary known as the Roaring Branch. And by "close" I mean the "make sure to engage your parking brake so your car doesn't roll in" kind of close. In the second photo you can see part of an old mill that's now used as a shop:





After taking these photos, I went further up the mountain onto Kelly Stand Road, aka the road I was driving when I idly commented to some friends that if I was going to murder someone it'd be a great place to hide the body/bodies. It's a road that winds its way through the Green Mountain National Forest between Arlington and Stratton, and I suspect I'll be taking quite a few trips up there over the course of this project. I didn't go all that far up into the woods, as it's a limited-access road during the winter months. But I did, miracle of miracles, find a spot wide enough to pull over. Better still, it was directly across from a wooden footbridge. I could see footprints on either end of the bridge, suggesting it had been safely traversed fairly recently. So I cautiously made my way out a few feet and took some shots. The river is narrower and weaker the further up the mountain you go, so there was a heck of a lot more ice at the edges:



Close-up, the thick ice looks like some sort of alien landscape. Or maybe that's just the sci-fi geek in me:

Okay, I can take a hint

The power here at my place just went off and back on, which I'm taking as a sign to take care of today's blog post while I can. Fingers crossed that the power stays on until my bed sheets are finished in the dryer.

We're actually still waiting for the onset of the storm, and if the clouds outside are any indication I don't think we've got very long to go. Uncertain of my ability to come up with things to photograph in my apartment two days in a row, I figured I should probably try and find something outside to take a picture of today before the precipitation finally arrives.

I'm finding that one of the best things about this project is the way it forces me to not only pay attention to the world around me, but to examine the familiar more closely. Today's a case in point. I've lived at my current location for more than three years now, which is located across from a convenience store. I've seen this store nearly every day and have picked up odds and ends there on numerous occasions. Today I went over to walk around the parking lot and see if there was anything to photograph, and discovered part of a stone wall just a bit downhill of the back of the lot. So I made my way down the hill and took these:









I have no idea what tomorrow might bring in terms of outdoor opportunities, so there's every chance I'll be resorting to taking pictures of my David Ortiz action figure before the day is over...

No capes!

The subject line has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of this post; I just happen to be watching The Incredibles at the moment.

As I was stuck in and at the museum for the heart of the day today, naturally it was the first sunny day we've had in a week.

I took this one this morning as I got ready to head into town:



And these two were taken just as the sun was setting up at my parents' house:





Sounds like we're in for a return to stormy weather tomorrow, which to me means it'll be a perfect day for vegging out on the couch. My kind of Sunday.

Second verse, same as the first

The weather people said we were supposed to see some sunshine today.

I'm saddened to have to report that they lied. They lied to us.

Instead it ended up being overcast, rainy, damp, and raw; seems like they did get it right when they mentioned we might be heading into the January thaw.

Unable to find any photographic inspiration at work today, I hopped in the car at lunchtime and drove around for a bit. I've discovered that one big obstacle to photography in this area during this time of year is it's pretty difficult to find a decent place to pull over for a few minutes. Or, at least, pull over and not worry about forcing traffic to go halfway into the other lane to get around you. But as I was driving down a road I must have taken dozens of times over the course of my life, I noticed a wooden fence and thought "that might be interesting to photograph." Better still, there was a long driveway leading up into the woods right next to the fence. Keeping my mental fingers crossed that none of the residents would need to use their drive in the next ten minutes, I parked, got out, and took these:







I'd say TGIF, but as it happens I'm working tomorrow. So my weekend hasn't quite started yet...

Hello grayness, my old friend

I realized today that in the two weeks I've been taking posting photos, there's been exactly one truly sunny day. As my brother likes to say, that just ain't right. Besides all of the usual downsides for anyone dealing with so many gloomy days, it seems like coming up with photo ideas is even more challenging when the light and landscape rarely change.

So, I fear today's photos aren't a particularly inspired bunch. First up, a tree branch against what passed for our midday sky:



Part of the trunk of the ancient Austrian pine on the museum's front lawn:



Finally, the upper-left corner of a bookcase in the museum's gift shop. Basically I went around the shop taking close-up shots of various things, and this was probably the best of the bunch:

Oh look: more snow

You know you've become at least somewhat dedicated to your project when you, however briefly, entertain the idea of stepping onto your front porch in 10° weather in your bathrobe so you can get a photo before the light changes. Fortunately, common sense kicked in and made me run upstairs for some proper clothes; unfortunately, by the time I got dressed the sunrise colors I'd hoped to capture were mostly a memory.



The previous photo of the big icicle? That wasn't a big icicle. This is a big icicle:



As you can see from the above pic, we had a bit of a snow flurry this afternoon. Yes, I know—such a novelty. Anyway, I took this photo from the back step of the gallery building. Not a lot of detail, but I sorta liked the effect: