Let the snow Melt!

March 6th.  Our first very warm day of 2012.

The thermometer read 54 degrees.

I flew out of the house with Morris and headed out towards the neighbor's pasture.  It was 4 o'clock.  The sun was low and it would was what photographers sometimes called 'the golden' hour.

I had grabbed my Olympus E-420 and had not grabbed my back pack which had lenses, filters and all sorts of goodies -- including a tripod attached to it.  [Wished I had though!]

Morris was thrilled.  Morris was getting muddy.  I was getting muddy.

But as I heard the water rushing through the pasture and heading for the creek I became excited and thrilled.  Wishing for a moment that I'd brought my hand little tripod.  The creek sounded like it would have many little waterfalls and the light was just perfect for taking some longer exposed shots.

There was the axle of a vehicle and an old fence post laying in the wash with brown water running through it and by it.

We headed down towards PeeWee's at a brisk pace.  I passed by the places I would normally stop and look.  I had one place in mind and wanted to get there before the light was gone.  Each step of the way I was kicking myself for not bringing the light weight tripod.

The further we walked towards the end of the valley, the harder the water was running.

I couldn't see any sign of the trout I'd seen the day before.  I wondered what happened to them in hard run offs like this.

Then we came to the rocks.

The lighting by this time was so poor that I could only get one or two shots.  Further down the valley, I could hear water thundering.  

I looked up at the ridge and the sun slowly disappearing through the bare branches of the trees and decided I didn't have enough time to get ALL of the way down the valley.

We turned around and walked back up the valley.  At one point Morris stopped and lifted one front paw, his stub of a tail stuck straight out.  He looked like a pointer.  I smiled, then looked for what he could possibly have detected.  I'd always thought that he was having 'brain breaks' when he'd done this before.

I squatted next to him and peered where he was looking.  After several long moments I spotted a deer picking its way up the icy still snow covered northern slop that we were going to take home.  

Okay.

Maybe next time I wouldn't doubt him.

Our last shot before the light faded from the valley: