Well

Hmmmm hmmm, hmmm. 

I've had an amazing week with so much taken care of! I checked off gobs of things I needed to have done here. I even built a paddock in an area for the mules in the winter to have another choice of hiding in the woods and brush. I may not let them be in there for deer gun season, but it will work out nicely if we have one of those easterly winds that come with bad ice/sleet events.

Here is a couple of leftover shots from the previous day's walk.

Friday night's sky made me feel calm and relaxed. It was stunning.

Saturday morning's drizzle ended and we had thick fog.

The neighbor's meadow developed fog that grew and changed and moved across the ground as well as rose through the trees in the valley.

Foggy mornings are amazing for Infrared Photography. So, I carried that camera with me also.

The Chrome Filter in IR turns leaves and any plant that have chlorophyll in them to a reddish hue depending on how much light they are absorbing and reflecting. The skies generally stay blue and the highlights can get very tricky.

However, a lot of trial and error can produce the results above. 

An acquaintance of mine via Flicker has lenses he uses to attach to his apple iPhone to take IR shots with it. It is a combination I think of a lens filter and perhaps an app? I don't know, but I know he prefers that over carrying his camera these days.

The things you can do these days with a cellphone camera!

Ariel came on Saturday morning and we are going to do some craft shopping. We watched some videos last night about acrylic paint pouring for Christmas Ornaments. We may try it, it sounds like a fun experiment to do. 

I like the abstract designs that pouring creates. Making a mess might be fun.

Michaels is having quite a sale on some items, so we will take the drive and do some girl shopping together along with a lunch date. Ariel is preparing supper so we'll have a nice evening doing fun stuff to celebrate her birthday.

Outside Exploring

Yes, I did get out for a bit even though it was cloudy with a mix of drizzle and rain. I walked along the creek bottom to see what I could find. I like to observe how things change and what is going on in the woods.

There is a pool that is about knee deep or so next to a rock wall. During the summer it was nearly dry, but with some of the rain and moisture we've had, it appears to have more water in it!

I was so happy to see the little trout swimming around.

I love to just sit and watch them. If they notice you, they flee to a darker shaded area of the little water hole. So I waited a few minutes and then they came back out and began to swim around. 15 second video.

I found the partially fresh carcass of a deer. It was mostly bones but there was enough color in the bones to indicate that it had only been there a couple of days. 

The birds were happily cleaning what they could off the bones.

I climbed out of the creek bottom and made my way along an old deer trail when I spotted a old birch log in the wet snow. I recall reading somewhere that one could start a fire in the woods even with wet birch.

I had some time so I decided to try that theory out. 
I picked birch bark off the log and made it into strips than piled it in the snow on another log.

I had a lighter in my bag, so I thought I'd try making a tiny fire.

Imagine my surprise when it worked! I watched the little fire catch and burn and then stomped on it. There was no danger of it spreading anywhere. However, now I knew if I could find birch [which is common in this area], I could always build a fire if I needed to.

This was my New Year's Eve day adventure. I had about an hour or so to use up and so I hiked through our woods and enjoyed fresh air.

I hope to start out the New Year once more Exploring. After all, I love that the best.