Macro Monday

On a day last week after an over night freezing rain, we took a ride to the Peninsula on Lake Erie, and saw lots of ice everywhere. Happy Macro Monday and do click on over to see what Lisa has done with this meme. http://lisaschaos.com. You can see lots more close-ups.

Macro Monday

After pouring almost all day Saturday the temperature dropped to 25 deg. during the night freezing everything.
Happy Macro Monday everybody, and do click on http://lisaschaos.com to see lots more close-ups.

Macro Monday

It's Macro Monday again already and we had some freezing rain earlier this week. Lots of bubbles in this shot along with a few frozen in time snow flakes.
Click on over to http://lisaschaos.com to see what Lisa has done with this great meme.

Weekend Reflections

I love taking photographs of icicles, and this will be my weekend reflection.
In the first picture you can see the icicle itself just as a drip gets ready to fall. The same icicle enlarged, you can see an image appear in the drip.

As the picture is rotated, now you can see a bird feeder, a fence post, a Maple tree, a sundial to the right at the base of the tree, and maybe some snow falling.

Happy Weekend Reflections and do click on over to http://newtowndailyphoto.blogspot.com

to see lots more reflections.

Spring IS coming!

We've had a marvelous 6 days in a row of sunshine! It didn't get very warm, usually 45º - 50º, but the sun is glorious and some of the snow is melting which is good. We are supposed to get rain by Friday and that could bring on some flooding. In places out back of our house the snow is still over 2 ft. deep! During the night the temperatures dip to the single digits. 6º on Tuesday morning! That makes for some interesting ice formations on puddles and makes for great maple sap flow.. An article in the local newspaper mentioned there had been a sighting in the channel between Lake Erie, and the "Bay" of a Harlequin duck. We drove down there Tuesday afternoon to see for ourselves. I couldn't find any but I did see some Common Goldeneyes. A new sighting for me.

There were lots of Canvasbacks too
. Another new sighting for me.

No Harlequin ducks seen that day, but on the way home I saw that same Eagle in the same tree.
Sitting right there where he has been before. This time I did notice a dead deer along side the road. Maybe a food source for this Eagle.

Just down the road from the Eagle across the road comes this stumbling Oppossum. Now I really like all animals, BUT I really don't care much for possums! I did stop the van though and we watched as he barely got across the road.

I could see why he was having trouble making his way across the highway. He appears to have lost a back foot. He also looked so dirty and scrungy. I think he was old, and maybe had been holed up for the winter. He was headed for a drink in a mud puddle.

Here is an Amish sawmill. Most of them around us are doing pretty good, but when the lumber ( trees) runs out these nomads will move on to where they can find more work. The families that don't work in the mills will most likely stay put.

OK, enough for today. Wednesday was another beautiful day and we went back to the Bay and to the Erie Peninsula for more pictures where I saw my first Tundra swans of this season . I'll be posting them on Saturday along with more ducks.
We saw lots and lots of Robins today too.

Weekend Reflections

We took a ride yesterday to the area where we search for beach glass, in the summer that is, and there in the same area were all these ice floes. Sea Gulls were sitting on some of them, but I wanted to take this one that I thought had cool reflections.
Thanks to James at Newtown Area Photos for keeping this meme going. Click HERE to see lots more reflections.

Watery Wednesday

Last week we had an entire day that it rained, and then the next day the temps dipped way below freezing and all the standing water froze. These are just some of the shots I took of the ice. Some of the patterns are pretty cool.
Thanks to 2sweetnsaxy for hosting this site. Click HERE to see lots more watery shots.

Before you leave, check out my post for Remember Whensday--- Below..

Macro Monday

In the past week we have had some fairly heavy rains, and then the last 2 nights it has frozen all the standing water. This ice is on one of our nature trails. I discovered when I looked closer you can actually see the crystals.
Happy Macro Monday to everyone, and thanks to Lisa for hosting this meme. Click on over to her site HERE and you'll see more close-ups.

Watery Wednesday

I guess frozen water counts doesn't it? Any other water around here is way too dirty to photograph after all the rain we've had.
These were taken in our front yard after that icing on Monday morning.
Happy Watery Wednesday everybody. Click on http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/ to see lots more watery pictures, and Thanks to 2sweetnsaxy for hosting this site.

Ice, Ice, and More Ice

It poured most of the night, and then about 7AM the temp. dropped below freezing. A coating of ice appeared on everything. These are actually droplets of ice on the Spruce needles.

The branches of the trees were covered, and when the wind picked up it knocked the branches together, and some of the ice fell. This had been covering a branch. It's about 4" long and 1 1/2" wide.

Looking down at the yard.

This is ice on the end of a railroad tie I use for my raised flower beds.

Cone flower dead head.

Split rail fence.

Tuesday it's supposed to rain , then turn cold at night. The creek has just begun to recede, and will no doubt fill up again. We have our generator ready just in case we lose power.

More Winter Part #2

I'm posting more of the frost pictures I took earlier this week.
Tonight, Thursday we're in the midst of a nasty snow storm that has dumped 12" of snow on us since 5AM today. Where IS spring. I am so ready for it. These are the berries from the Spiraea.

Icicle on Blue Spruce.

How clear the sky was that day. A rare sight in the winter.

A gall on a Golden Rod .

This is a bit of open water in our pond. I wasn't very quiet walking by this spot and I scared off a pair of Mallards. I must remember to be more observent.

Mrs. Cardinal looking as pretty as ever.

How about her other side?

This out building is coated with white ICE, not snow. We saw this on a ride the other day in an area where they had an ice storm last week.

Ridin the Rails. These Pigeons are always walking the tracks looking for food. Do you see the other one peeking up from the ground?

I know I've posted Mourning Doves plenty of times before, but I do like their looks. This one had been sleeping till he must have heard me.

Yesterday afternoon I managed a walk on the creek trail. It had been under water from that storm we had last week, and then after the water receded it all turned to ice. As I walked along I crunched through about 3" of thick ice. It was interesting to see all the left over frozen water appearing in so many forms.
This was at the base of a tree. Some of the chunks were 5"-6" thick, and this one had started to melt.

Little ice balls just above the water.

I'm not sure what to call these, but they are so cool.

A closer shot.

This old snag had fallen down during the strong winds. Last spring it was home to a family of House Wrens, and was at least 7 ft. high. Oh, how they would scold me when I got too close. I hope they can find a new place to raise their family.

The high water left several gatherings of sticks wedged in some of the saplings.

Another beautiful day. I went out early yesterday morning just after sunrise and took many pictures of the frost. I'll post them tomorrow. P.S. It was 5º at that time. We're predicted temps. in the 40's today and then later turning to snow, with lake effect on the way.Oh joy! Enjoy the day and get out there and take at least one picture.....