My World - Snow

Last Wednesday we received our weekly dose of snow, except this time it began with a couple of inches of sleet and was falling about 2 inches/hour. It was also being driven by a strong wind. Total accumulation was just over 8 inches. Offices and schools closed early, allowing people the chance to drive in a snow storm and complicating the snow plow drivers work. The heavy snow snapped tree limbs and caused power outages (but not at our house). Of course there were numerous traffic accidents, cars stuck in the snow and TV reports diligently reporting while standing in the snow! Of course, now there will be investigations into why ice stuff is slippery; cars are not snowmobiles; and power company repair trucks are not deployed before the snow starts (the highway people did get out ahead of the storm). On snow days around here, it is an advantage to be retired!

Canada geese honking loudly and looking for a place to land

Snow at night

The morning after

From my home office

Snow on the north side of trees

PhotoHunt - Standing in snow

I spotted this snow lover standing in the wheat field behind our house. He and a friend were taking turns sliding down the hill he had just climbed.

Sky Watch - PhotoShopped skies

I use Photoshop Elements 2.0 for editing my photos. Most of my posts are resized to 900 or 600 pixels and saved with low resolution. I some times crop, adjust color, contrast, brightness, etc when I believe the straight out of the camera was not exactly what I saw. I do at times go beyond the simple edits to change the visual effects of the original image. The header "Horizontal clouds" posted on January 26 is an example. The above image was taken on January 24 has only been resized. The image below was cropped and I applied auto color enhancement. PhotosShop's algorithm determined that the image should be grayer than my Nikon. I used the Enhance->Adjust Color->Hue & Saturation features to get the colors in the header.

I also like the saturated blue shift below.

Window Views - Gingerbread windows

There are a number of these Victorian styled homes in the area - some original, some restored, some more modern copies. This is one of the more colorful ones. If I remember correctly, this was an old, drab house before a recent major, quite successful, renovation.

My World - Family visit

picture by Marianne

My Colorado son and granddaughter arrived Sunday (after an unscheduled overnight in Chicago due to airline delays). They went to West Virginia to visit family there and will be back with us Thursday, before returning home this weekend.

PhotoHunt - Little hands, big hands

Bryce reaching for Uncle Mike's hands

Little hands, big spoon

Grandpa's soothing hand

With Mommy's helping hand

Sky Watch - Fire in the clouds

The sky on January 19 lit up the clouds with a fiery glow. This sequence was taken over a seven-minute period as the sun was setting.

Window Views - Through fireplace door

We have had a fire going many of these cold winter nights. This log with a hole made for interesting flames.

My World - Cats

I have had pets most of my adult life, many cats and a few dogs. Marianne and I adopted these two from the Siamese Rescue in 2001. They have kept us entertained since then. Like most felines, they sleep alot.

PhotoHunt - Me and my shadow

Sky Watch - Thursday's skies

Morning clouds

Afternoon blue

Afternoon cloud

Sunset

Window Views - Looking out at snow

The storm that marched across the southern states and left roads impassable, turned north at the coast and brought us a little snow and a nice view out my office window. It then met up with a second storm and together, they buried the northeast in 1 to 2 feet of snow.

My World - More Christmas baby

Christmas Eve wearing Daddy's hat

I planned to post these Christmas images of Bryce last week, but preempted them when Beth stopped by for a surprise visit. Our Great Grandson delighted us over Christmas with his curiosity and intense interest in all that was happening. I had forgotten just how fast the little ones develop and the range of interest and abilites they have.

This is interesting!

What's in here?

Checking out Leap Frog

In a new outfit and still playing

A nap after opening presents and playing

With me on the 26-th (photo by Marianne)

PhotoHunt - A photographic Christmas

A new camera case (it is also a backpack), a calendar of my favorite images, and some books by two pioneers of photography. Thank you Susan, Christy, Tammy, Jim and Marianne!

Sky Watch - Old year, new year

NASA has posted some great images of the December lunar eclipse and the January partial solar eclipse. Here are the links:

Jan 4 Solar
Sunset, Moonset
Sunrise, Moonrise
December 23 Lunar
Eclipsing the sun
Eclipse at moonset
The solstice’s moon eclipse

Contrail and clouds, December 21

Foggy morning, December 30

Sunset through trees, January 2

Sunset from field, January 3

Window Views - Sunny windows

Early morning sun basked on our window

and a neighbors yesterday.

My World - Surprise visit!

photo by Marianne

Yesterday afternoon when I returned from taking more bags of leaves to the composting facility, Marianne was sprucing up a bit. She said we were having company in about an hour and asked me to put away some more stuff. As we waited for "said person" she was being unusually coy and not committal as to who was coming. Then, much to my surprise my daughter, Beth, appeared! She had made a quick weekend visit to see her step-Dad in West Virginia who is seriously ill. And she stopped to spend a few hours with us (and buy us dinner) before going to the Baltimore airport for her flight back to Arizona.

Thanks Beth - it was good to see you!

PhotoHunt - Fuzzy sleeper

Where does a big fuzzy cat sleep? At our house where ever he wants!