Life in a Snow Globe

I can't believe that it's March 5th and I'm doing a post about snow!  How crazy is that people?!

This morning, when I left to go have lunch with Ms. M and my good friend Doug, I was amazed to see how wintry our world was, especially since we've had such a mild winter.  And yes, those are Christmas lights on the railing of our patio, we keep them up year round so that in the summertime it looks like fairy lights, and helps us find our way back when we kayak after dark.

The flakes were coming down fast and furious and you couldn't even see the creek very well or the barn in the field next to us.

It was so pretty though, and it made me feel like I was living inside a snow globe.

The pups even looked like little creatures inside a snow globe as the big fluffy flakes settled onto their coats making them look like reverse dalmatians!

The weird thing was that as I drove the half hour to Ms. M's house the weather changed dramatically.  Over there on that side of the county there was almost no snow on the ground and the trees were not covered the way they were at our house.  And I'm glad I snapped some pictures before I left, because by the time I got back home the temps had risen and there was not much snow to be found at our house either.

I had a lovely lunch with friends and I got to see one little blast of winter before it finally bids us farewell this year.  I guess mother nature just felt like she couldn't let the winter pass by without a little reminder of how things could have been these past few months.

Plus, if I were mother nature I would just want to show off what I can do, like turning someone's world into a snow globe, if only for a few short hours.

In other news, I picked up a copy of the photo editing program Lightroom.  I'm still learning how to use it, but so far I love how much I can do with it, like creating very custom black and white images like the ones in this post.  It allows me to adjust each color and hue so that I can really customize the shades of black, grey, and white in any image...and I'm loving that feature!

I hope your week is off to a good start!

Time Marches On

Today was absolutely glorious...70 degrees, clear blue skies, and a lovely breeze all made it as close to a perfect day as anyone could wish for.

Not only is it the 1st of March, but today it just felt like spring had finally arrived.  You could sense the world coming back to life.  There are nests being built...

Lawn chairs are waiting at the ready.

The pups sense it too, and want to be outside all of the time now.

The water seems more blue somehow...

And little birds perch on nearly every branch singing their little hearts out...

Smells that haven't been smelled since last year at this time are emerging and curious noses need to breathe in the promise of renewal...

And branches are unable to hide their new colorful springtime attire.

But better than all of that was seeing the sun still high in the sky even though the clock said it should be getting dark...oh how I love you sunshine and long, light filled days!

Happy March Everyone!!!

Nothing to Write Home About

Where does the time go I sometimes wonder?!  I've been so busy with work that I haven't had a chance to reply to comments, send emails, or even snap a picture in the last 4 days!

I broke the no picture streak this afternoon when I took a few photos from my back yard.  What you can't see in the picture is that is was, and still is spitting snow.  I doubt it will amount to much, the lion's share is expected to stay pretty far south of us, but seeing big fluffy snowflakes was fun none the less.

The older I get the more I find a certain sense of beauty in the stillness and lack of color that the winter has to offer.  Though I can't imagine I will ever give up spring and summer as my favorite seasons, in winter it seems as if the world is forced to bare its soul for a few months and I think we all need to bare our souls to someone every now and again.

As I'm winding my way through new ventures I've been bending Mr. Tide's ear a lot lately and he patiently listens and offers sage advice.  Someone should probably give the man a medal, because nothing I drone on and on about is really anything to write home about, but he treats it as if I'm pondering world peace or ways to save the planet.  You have to love someone who lets you bare your soul and doesn't laugh when you share your dreams and aspirations.

Well it's back to work for me...at least until Downton Abbey starts!  I hope you each have a wonderful week and if you have something to write home about, do tell, I can always take time away from work for a good story!

According to Plan

Thank you everyone for your wonderful birthday wishes, I had a great day!  It started with lovely cards from my family and a special gift from Mr. Tide.  He bought me a teleconverter for my big lens.  It is a special piece of equipment that can give your lens even more range, so it's great for trying to capture wildlife or things that are far, far away.

I slapped that puppy on just as soon as I could unwrap it and get it out of the box.  But there was a slight problem, it wouldn't work unless you were using manual focus.  This particular teleconverter overrides the auto focus feature on my camera.  Now that wouldn't be a problem except that the whole point of extending my telephoto lens was so that I could capture better shots of wildlife, like eagles, swans, herons, etc. 

All of those feathered friends I just mentioned aren't too keen on just sitting still and posing for portraits.  They are constantly moving, even if it's just a tiny head movement, so trying to use manual focus on something that is forever in motion just doesn't work.  And on today's digital cameras there isn't even a really great way to make sure you have sharp focus.  Remember on old film cameras when you could line up the two halves of the circle to make sure you were in focus...well those days are gone!  I would like to say that I can see as well as I did 20 years ago, especially for distance stuff, but the truth is I can't, so even on things that were sitting stock still I couldn't get a nice sharp photo. 

That meant that the only present Mr. Tide had gotten me for my birthday was heading back from whence it came.  I was fine with it, but he was really bummed.  It all worked out in the end though, and I ended up getting a few other lovelies to make up for it which I will show you soon.  In the meantime, I am back to long distance shots of eagles...these two were in my neighbor's tree today and I'm pretty sure I overheard them snickering about my eyesight and the fact that my teleconverter didn't work according to plan.

And another little hiccup of late, the winners of my last giveaway, I know you think I have forgotten you and left you in the lurch.  While I was sitting here thinking your photos were winging their way to your respective homes I got a little shock on Saturday when the mail was delivered.  I had carefully entered your addresses into the website of the place where I get prints made, only to have forgotten to click the "drop ship" button on each one.  So that means that it defers to my address as the default address...huge sigh!  So, your photos are all at my house and not with you...another huge sigh!  I braved Walmart (have I mentioned how much I hate Walmart?!) and bought some photo mailers so that I can get them in the mail by early this week.

Sometimes life just doesn't go according to plan I tell ya!  But hey, no one died, so it's all good in the end!