1st Snow-12-7-17

We had our first serious snow the other night and day ... maybe 11-12 inches ... it was wonderful.

Susan as we leave for a walk ... it was snowing rather delightfully

Monk ??

The neighbors yard behind our house has a monkish looking figure under one of their bushes. I don't know what it is but rather like it and a while ago i took some photos with the long lens out the attic window. Its pretty b&w out there right now except for some bright red leaves on a bush that hasn't fallen off yet.

I like seeing the figure each time i look out the back of the house.

Ice Highlights

Frozen ice highlights

Ice

We had our first real freeze, 27ºF, last night which put some nifty ice and ice bubbles in a planter bottom tray. It took some playing with shots to realize that the DOF was so shallow that i had to shoot directly over the bubble i wanted or i couldn't get it in focus even with stacking. These four shots were a surprise as the bubble i was shooting burst after the third shot, leaving a collar of mini-bubbles where the large one was:

The bubble, all the bubbles, were moving, some slowly some quickly. It hadn't occur to me that the bubble would burst or i would have tried to catch it in bursting action. Still, it left a nice ring behind.

Empty yard

Waiting for a bus the other day, i realized i was standing in from of a yard, with steps, that had never been completed and there was just an empty yard where a house would usually be. It was sorta neat.

There is a highly decorated shed at the back of the lot

Standing at the top of the steps

I walked up to the design and while i like it, i'm not able to read it; can you?

Backyard Trees

Trees ... they're amazing, no matter what time of the year:

Mineral Mine

On the way back from the Inn north of us, we stopped to visit a mineral mine. From the late 1800's to the mid 1900's, feldspar was mined here and is the main ingredient in Bon Ami, a non-scratching cleanser. Today the mine is flooded and not accessible and i was disappointed that i wasn't able to actually enter a mine shaft. Except for the first view below which is just inside what use to be the mine entrance -but now all blocked off- there's not much sense of a mine having been here except the grounds are filled with old mining equipment of which i didn't take any photos.

It was very sunny and the light reflecting on the water inside the overhang gave it a very bright look.

From the outside it looked like this:

They did have a 'company store' that was interested. Set up as they use to be in the 1880's, etc., it was a walk thru much like a museum - actually, exactly like a museum which was what it was.