The Magic of Winter

I sometimes go on and on about how wonderful winter is and how much fun it can be.

Huh.
Well, it was fun this weekend in a wicked odd sort of way.

Saturday it was snowy and drizzly and warm, so my Kenosha friends and I went hiking. Ugh. Amanda and I broke trail with snow shoes. It was deep soft smushy snow, hard to walk in. Charlie jumped from one track to the next all the way down to the creek.

There the walking was easier as we could walk in the water or on the rocks.
We all took a break mid valley. It started to rain lightly and busting through the soft snow that was knee deep was tiring.
Amanda was cuddling Charlie while the girls discussed making a snowman.

And....

The snowman was completed!

We thought we'd try cross country skiing after dark, but the rains came hard and driven. With the deep snow we already had, it was not a good thing. The weather forecast said the heavy rain would change to snow and the winds would become wicked.

The forecasters were right. The rain did turn to snow and the winds came.

So after chores, we went out to see how the driveway looked and how the ridge looked.

Justin came down and did a bit of plowing over the slush in the lower driveway. All that rain combined with draining off the hills collected as slush and water in the lower part of our driveway. It would later freeze into a horrible mess of ruts and footprints. 
Such is winter.

The ridge view was incredible. In this shot you can see the trees are iced and frosted with snow. We didn't get much snow but what snow there was was being blown by the high winds. There is a spot where slushy water was across the road from the night's rains.

The kids had to go check out the road. They were amused at the fact that there was no traffic.

I took photos of the beautiful ice.

We discussed the sanity of my friends driving back home. They said they wanted to do some cross country skiing and then they would make the decision.

Amanda and I stayed out of the winds and watched this scene unfold...

I must say it looks like they are explorers forging their way in no man's land!
The town plow had been through and had busted up the drifts, but with those winds, the drifts came back rapidly.

Lauren and her oldest son joined us.
And the adventure was on...

We stuck close to the woods where the winds were blocked.

But even close to the woods we had snow tornadoes...

Then Lauren and the kids took off down the long slope to the Tree Tunnel.
I didn't.
I watched.
I knew how hard that trip would be coming back up the hill and against the winds....

I tried to point out the humans...

Our guests are gone.
The winds died down.

And this morning I saw this as I was making coffee.

Winter.
I love it.
I hate it.

It sure can be magical.

Last thought added....after chores.
Wicked. Driveway drifted. Subaru iced in its parking spot. Roof vent is covered buried which has never happened before.
Can't get to it.
Can't get out.
Sigh.

After the Rains

After the rain yesterday morning, I walked out with Charlie onto the wet grass and surveyed the damage to the driveway. More wash outs.

Mental note. If Rich doesn't call Jeff in the next few days, I will stop by or call his farm and ask him to stop by. For some reason Rich has put off calling Jeff for months. Jeff was the fellow who reconstructed our driveway in 2007 and then also made us a ridge road through the woods with his bulldozer.

The fog was eerie yet beautiful. Droplets of water were still hanging on everything.

I don't think Charlie was impressed much. He sniffed around in the wet grass and did dog business.

I went back to the house before the rest of the farm woke up and to get the laundry out of the dryer and fold it. I had bed sheets to change and a huge load to fold.
I knew we'd had about 3 inches of hard rain and that should have caused a minor flash flood in the creek.
After chores I wanted to explore, so I packed my sling camera bag with items I thought I'd need.
Just for fun I added two Morel Mushroom Candles so I could play a photo trick on everyone.

It actually worked. I did state on Facebook, that the Morels were not real, but the amount of people that didn't realize that was amazing.
I even titled it 'Deception of Candles' and added the character 'Creepy Baby' next to the one candle.

I have to admit, they look like the real deal unless you notice the wicks.

I did get to hike through the creek and wished I had been there when the water was high. That would have been before dawn though.
The water was still running off the hillsides and into the creek creating a muddy look with little bubbles floating on the surface.

I experimenting with some short-long exposures and found that a 4 second exposure gave streaks to the bubbles.

The sun came out and exposures got a bit trickier. So I dug around in my pack and pulled out the Infared Filter.

It didn't change the first photo much, but the second photo did as it should. Greens turned white.

These two shots were my favorites of the day.

My whole intention on going out was to see if any of the wild flowers were appearing because of the rain.
I was not disappointed.

I didn't find blood roots, but I did find what we call Spring Beauties or sometimes just Pinks.

And on the south banks of the creek, the Maidenhair Ferns were curling upwards.

Rich wasn't having a good day, so the rest of the day was spent near the house. I dug hostas out from around the pines where I am going to bury Morris. Charlie helped me and we have a lot more work to do to make things just right.

I cleaned around the east flower garden and quit about 5pm. Charlie was dirty from helping me and my poor hands hurt like the dickens.
It was a fairly good day.
Rich felt better by chore time and the thunderstorms moved back in.

Off to the VA for appointments today...