Snow day

I adore the morning after a snow when the temperatures are frigid and the snow crystals glisten.
Snow Diamonds.

I'll never get those words out of my head. Yes, I think Dad each time I see them. He'd once asked me to take photos of them for him.
He was going blind at the time from macular degeneration.

But I always seek Snow Diamonds...

I live for these mornings. When the atmosphere is heavy with moisture and there is no wind.
The Hoar frost arrives and turns the world into a delightful place of reflecting lights.

Things look so magical with frost on them!

The morning light was magical on the snow. Charlie and I took a quick morning walk and went to do the chores.

Rich was still complaining about his stomach hurting. I asked pointed questions to try and help him figure out what was bothering him. It ended up with him telling me in a fit of anger to 'shut up' and get out.
Of course I think part of the issue was his inability to articulate what the problem was as much as deciding that my questions were nagging.
I handed him a sheet of paper that has the VA's phone number to the nurse's line and after I took all of his vitals [normal], I let him be while I took Mr. Charlie for a hike.

That dog does love snow!

Late in the afternoon, I fired up the Dreaded Skid Steer and cleared the parking area on the north side of the house. It is just yard, but in the winter it is nice to have it plowed out so I can bring groceries into the kitchen instead of walking around the house.
It went okay as far as driving the Beast goes. I got brave and did a little more touching up but didn't go hog wild. I need many more hours with the Beast before I could ever get proficient at it.

We are supposed to get some more snow later this week and the wind chills are to drop into the way below zero range.
Perfect weather for snowshoeing in the valleys.

Dangerous Travel & Crafty Things

Travel not Advised was this morning's report at 6am.

I was good with that. I wasn't going anywhere.

These were 'the kids' this morning. I was taking it easy and didn't rush out at 7am and feed them. I waited and watched the snow come down. They were wearing nice snow coats.

Rich didn't feel well so the day was spent 'crafting'. You would be amazed at what a person can do with the cardboard from a toilet paper roll!

I used a top from a medicine bottle to make the bottom of the roll and the top of it more stable. I used a scrap of heavy weight paper to make a cone for the top. Scotch tape to add the little door and the piece of heavy paper above the 'door'. I imagined it to be a fungi...well, eventually.

Here is the 'stone' house I did last week. I set it on an ice pail cream lid. This summer I'll fill the lid with a bit of dirt and some moss. I poked holes in the plastic to let rain water out. I decided that this was not a fairy house, but a Squirrel's house.

I decided then to look up how to make tiny pots for tiny plants. How fun could this be???

Toothpaste cap. Script bottle cap, old twisters from the junk drawers...Scotch tape..paint...
and some straws.

Well, I had to do something while the toilet paper house was drying.

A bit of paint....
for the roll...

There are some finishing touches yet, but the top does fit on securely.

While that dried I returned to the mini plants I'd made.

This is the tiny plant I made out of used twisters and tape. The brown pot is the crest toothpaste top.
This next one is the mini plants I made out of straws.

And then after I finished with them...

I have to admit I really had my doubts this would work very well, but with the added touch of the tiny stones in the 'pots', I think it is cute!

Tomorrow, I'll put the new items together and see how it stacks up in a photo.

I'm enjoying this little Mini World!

Black and White

I was challenged by a fellow photography friend to post a week's worth of black and white photos on Facebook. I do like black and white and that is partially why I decided to jump into Infrared Photography.
If the colors don't always trip your trigger, you can always convert it to a stunning black and white photo. Well, that is, if you have a decent photo to begin with.

I hiked earlier this week and took only my converted camera. I used an 850nm filter on it which will only produce IR photos in black and white. In the summer, leaves would appear pure white as would the grass. The clouds would stand out much better in a blue sky that appears black.

Well, here are some of those results with snow!

The bark of the trees are reflecting in a lighter color than a standard black and white shot. The old leaves of the oak tree are reflecting as white! The original photo in camera and when I bring it up at first is really a shocker. It is dull and listless.
So editing with a heavy hand is a must.

Here is a sample of this shot as it came off the camera:

Pretty dismal looking right?

With infrared photography, there is always editing involved.

I find that the infrared in the winter is not always a bonus, but that doesn't keep me from experimenting anyway.

I did use my little pocket IR camera to take this shot of pine trees. This was with a 665nm filter. Here is what it looks like straight out of the camera.

Kind of cool. The pines are a bluish white and the clouds show up pretty well.

Channel Swap:

The colors are pretty wild. Sky is a bluish color and some of the green pines are pinkish.
I could brighten it up some, but thought I'd see what it looked like in black and white.

I liked it!

And then I decided to blend it with a layer of Topaz Glow which sort of emulates a brush stroke.

Well, this final version tickled me. Just enough pizzazz to make it something I'd put on my walls. Not perfectly realistic, but in an artsy sort of sense, dreamy...

I've always thought that winter was perfect for black and white because the colors are so often muted and dismal looking.


I think I should work on some Still Life next....

Oh and the Fairy house?
It is coming along!

Still ugly, but...

It has potential!

Wrong Way Me

A friend from CrossFit asked if I could show him some trails to hike on. He is looking for some nice hiking trails to take his wife on. I said sure!

I've been asked by other friends at CF and they sort of have interest but then sort of don't pursue the request. I won't push anyone into hiking with me at all. It has to be their choice.

Bill and I set a date and time and went for it.

The above shot is one from Bill's cell phone as we started out the hike. The Reserve has many trails and some are very nice wide trails that are shared in the winter with snowmobile trails. Other trails over more sensitive areas are only for hikers. Many trails are multi use which really makes this a great place for everyone.

A person can choose to take tough trails or easy trails.

With the warm temperatures this past weekend, the snow melt was significant. It was obvious that the trails had turned to mushy wet footprints that with Monday's cold weather had turned the trails into icy rugged ankle twisters. 

I suggested we hike with Yak Traks and Bill agreed.  There was an ice crust on the remaining snow on the sides of the trail, but walking in that was harder than negotiating the icy footprints.

I'd taken a less traveled route and by mistake followed the snow mobile trail in the wrong direction I wanted to go in...but the footing was so much nicer! 

Hikers and snowmobiles share these trails and it was easier to walk on.

We went around a huge rock formation and Bill pointed it out. I said something like not recalling that on my last hike.

Then at the bottom of a long hill I stopped in my tracks. I'd taken a wrong turn. At marker 3, I should have gone left instead of right. Bill laughed and we made the executive decision to just double back as we had plenty of time.

That's Bill.
It didn't matter much to him that we were back tracking at all. He said the scenery was stunning and I had to agree with him.

IF I had used viewed my position on Google Maps with the Satellite choice, I would have easily seen that I was very close to where I'd parked just last week to hike to the ice caves.
My bad.
We could have walked out the the county road and hiked along the nice flat road back to where we had parked.

Both Bill and I decided we'd come back this spring and hike to the formation of interesting rocks we'd seen.
I was embarrassed that I'd taken the wrong turn and felt worse than ever about it after I realized that I could have made our hike back a bit easier.
Bill was such a good sport.

The end result was that we walked the less icy trails...AND Bill asked if we could hike again next week.
So I guess I didn't put him off after all.

I think Bill is getting his own map of KVR and he said next time he was bringing his compass.
I usually have one attached to my back pack.

I wonder where I left it.
Anyway two heads are better than one I think.

New project?

I enjoyed creating the little stick 'fairy house' last weekend. I did some more reading about how to reuse common household items and turn them into more fairy type houses.

One style that I thought was interesting, was putting tiny rocks on a container. Okay. So how does one do that? I mean how can rocks stick to clay or plastic?
I watched some videos and gathered some information. Try double sided heavy duty stick tape to adhere rocks to the plastic. Then spread grout or something similar around it.
Think of tiling but on an object instead of a wall.

I decided to go for a walk yesterday because the weather was just so darned nice! It was 48 degrees. The mules were sleeping in the sun, Rich was napping, so it just seemed like a good idea to wander down to the creek. Charlie had to stay home, the coyotes are really running now during the day time.

And...because I like to do things differently, I took my Infrared Camera to see if I could actually get some interesting shots in the winter.

Yes, it was interesting, the oak leaves did reflect light back and so did the clouds.
I had a filter on that doesn't record color. So I was really going for strict black and white. I'm not sure I like or dislike it. It is just interesting.

When I got to the creek it was obvious that there was a melt going on but it wasn't a gushing gully washer. There would have to be another very warm and sunny day to create that.
It was very slippery so just wandered slowly around and peered at things. Like moss and rocks.

I found some interesting bark that was dry. I peeled it off the branch and dropped it into a plastic bag I always carry with me. I sat down and sorted through some tiny rocks bits too.

I wasn't sure of what exactly I was doing, but an idea was shaping up in my brain.

Later I sorted things out and ...
I wondered how I might attach the interesting bark to the sour cream container. A used pill bottle could be an oversized chimney?

And the rocks?

A tiny rock wall?
A walkway?

Should I make this little house on top of the lid? Then I could take the whole works out to the garden and set it on a planter or a stump.

And there is this styrofoam package that my tree statue came in. I'd seen someone used styrofoam to make 'fake' rocks.

So many possibilities.

The bark didn't work out very well so I used some Gorilla Brand two sided tape. I put the tape on the plastic carton.

The tape works very well and was almost easier than using hot glue. I filled in the cracks with some DAP Kwik Seal Silicon Adhesive Calk. So much for the plumber side of me!

I used some of the super tape on top of the plastic carton, then added the top of a laundry soap container. I'll add clay and acorns to it I think.
The caulk will need some touch ups with acrylic paint.


Now I have to wait for the caulk to dry before I go to the next step.