the fullest moon

I was grateful to hear the news, at work today, about the fact that tonight would be the brightest full moon of the year. And I also thought it was pretty cool to have the capturing of this sight be a part of my work assignments :-) Mind you, I have not yet done any moon photography, so it took a bit of research to figure out the proper settings. Once out there, however, my camera began to be its recently-finicky self, so I couldn’t use the settings I “should” have anyway. What I ended up with is growing on me a bit, in a slightly eerie, full-moon befitting sort of way :-)

the concentric hearts

For those of you following my snowshoe hearts saga, here’s the visual of my “community creation” :-)

snow hearts & ice blocks

This afternoon I headed out to the lake with the snowshoes . . . and there I found a delightful surprise: someone, it seems, both noticed and appreciated my snowshoe heart. For now, on the lake, there is a lovely set of concentric showshoe hearts :-) In other news, today was the annual ice-cutting on the lake–an authentically historic event, after which the blocks of ice that are culled are stored in the farm’s ice house for the remainder of the year. While I did take the expected shots of the process itself, it was this photo of the after-effect that I found most interesting. Of course, that is my own aesthetic preference: one that is admittedly not-necessarily-normal :-)

just for goofiness sake

. . . because sometimes it is just necessary to amuse oneself. And, hey, after yesterday’s photo fun, I realized I had a whole lotta frozen lake in front of me today that just begged to be “decorated” :-)

paving the way

It occurred to me today that I was tired of solely documenting other folks’ snowy fun. So I donned the snowshoes and hit the lake today . . . leaving my own mark :-)

finicky fishies

When I spotted this fisherman and his paraphernalia out on the lake this morning, I first thought that it was some sort of preparation for the annual ice-cutting later this month. So I stopped and called out, “Excuse me, sir: would you mind if I ask you what you’re doing?” [never mind the fact that it was of course too late, by this point, to ask if he minded my query :-)]. He was kind enough to not only not mind, but to oblige my curiosity by explaining a bit about the process of manually drilling holes for ice fishing–and to allow me to photograph the process. It seems that, so far today, the fish have not been cooperating very well . . . the nerve!

let’s go fly a kite . . .

As we left to run some errands in town, I debated whether or not to take my camera along. Thinking out loud, I told Jen I’d just leave it for now, anticipating a practicalities-only sort of outing.
Later, dropping her off at her place as the sun was setting, she hollered back at me before going inside: “Get your camera,” she advised, “and go down to the lake!” I did as she said and was ever so grateful to her for the tip. What I found was the most lovely sight–a solitary skater with a kite/parachute . . . a stunning sight, as he glided to and fro on the ice, the wind lifting, and dropping, his yellow kite behind as he went.
So maybe winter’s not all bad :-)

snow dunes?

Perhaps it’s just a winter-weary imagining–similar to thirst-induced mirages of glittering oases in the middle of the desert . . . But for whatever reason, when I passed this wind-swept patch of snow, all I could think was Sand dunes! Yes, I am officially, decidedly, bad at winter :-)

from the horse’s mouth

Neighhh . . . I sayyy–aren’t you glad Farmer Bob bought us fine new coats for Christmas? I just love stylin’ in the snow!