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!