Weather: spring

A little over a week ago, Paper Goods Pond was still almost all ice. Thaw started on Easter weekend; this afternoon, it was warm enough for this young woman to be meditating on the shore wearing a tank top.  Taken with the LensBaby Muse.

Weather: winter

It was one of the coldest winters on record here in New England–weeks of temps below freezing, nights below zero. This is Paper Goods Pond, captured mid-afternoon in ice and chilling clouds using the LensBaby circular fisheye lens.

Quirky

According to Popular Photography, only 3% of photographers regularly use a fisheye lens, and only 1% use a LensBaby.  This shot of a winter maple (and, yes, it was taken at the end of March…which should NOT still be winter…but that’s another issue) was taken with a LensBaby fisheye.  That’s quirky.

Morning Sun

Morning sun: There is a decided lack of sun today, so the cheery yellow daffodils in the window will have to serve as a stand-in.

Orange

It was a raw day to be up in a cherry picker, but nowhere near as cold and windy as it’s been.  The men’s orange hoods stood out against the bleak snow-heavy sky.

River Beauty

For us, this is the silent still time of year.  We go out in the woods on our snowshoes, and usually all that is moving is shifted by the wind–branches and mists of snow.  But every so often, we come upon running water, pure shining black.  This time, we were startled by a flock of ducks that were paddling in the open water.  We startled them as well.  They squawked and flapped indignantly away.

Red

It’s amazing–you take a dull grey February afternoon; you strap on snowshoes and go tramping about in the silent snowy woods, and you find yourself saying, “What a beautiful day!” It’s all perspective. Winter does have its own loveliness: quiet, patient, waiting.  We just need to get out into it.  As we were heading back, off in the distance, we saw another pair of snowshoers. One had a bright red jacket (like mine!) This is not a B&W photo with selective coloring–this is the way it looked, one bit of red against the cold winter monochrome.

A Little Vino

Last night, we went out to a tapas restaurant with our daughter, Sierra (to celebrate here having been named Employee of the Month at her new job.)  We had a nice Malbec to go along with the meal.

autumn MORN 80

Autumn is beyond us and any hint of it buried beneath snow.  So I’m going to have to concentrate on “morn.”  For many people, that involves coffee, as in this cup from the café at Barnes & Noble. Me, I’m a tea drinker–but I think for a lot of us, “morn” involves caffeine.

Red

Within the sleek, cavernous, neutral architecture of the Hartford Convention Center is this red staircase.