Today Last Year

There wasn't much snow on the ground today last year. There were growing mushrooms so I expect it was warmer as well, though it is supposed to get to almost 50 F today. The rain will likely make it feel colder. I was flipping though last years photos, and flowering bulbs are only a few weeks away. The cold will be ending, and spring will arrive. The yard is now down to only 2 inches of compacted ice, or 6 inches of snow depending on whether the dogs can get to an area. Soon the season of mud will appear and I will yet again curse not digging up the yard last fall and planting new grass.

Abby

I really want a fast prime. I'm using my 100 mm 2.8 macro for any low light shooting, and the distance needed for even small subjects is not easy to accommodate. I'm also not a huge fan of the focus you get at 2.8 anyway. I prefer sharply focused pics over soft focus, so often shoot at lover f values. The Kit 18-55mm Lens is just too slow for indoor uses without flash, though maybe I'm just a focus nutcase. The kit lens works okay when on a tripod with live view focusing. With enough light outside it can work well there too.

When I have a full-time job again I need to pick up a 50mm f/1.8, which I should have picked up while I still had disposable income.

Snow Shadows

This is from back in January at Moose Hill. I managed to get there early enough to stare at tons of sparkling snow. There were whole fields full of dancing light every time I moved. Of course photographing the sparkling rarely works. You can see a tiny bit in the lower portion of the photo. This led me to watching the shadows. I love the rippling effect in the above photo. I also spotted some raccoon prints and multiple coyote prints the same day.

Daniel Webster - Back in January

Back in January when we were still getting weekly snow storms I drove out to Daniel Webster. I think I posted one photo from that trip then forgot about it. Now that I've moved my daily photo posts (see above) I need to get back to the hiking.

It was quite cold that day and I waited until almost noon to go out. Obviously this makes the pictures not spectacular, but my car can be iffy of snow and I wanted to let the plows clear the roads. I apparently didn't wait long enough as several roads in Marshfield were still covered in packed snow. At Danial Webster the parking lot had just been plowed and a woman and her daughter were shoveling out the entry building. The daughter actually asked if I was a biologist or something since I had snow shoes and had been the only person silly enough to show up. I dislike breaking trail. The main reason being it's exhausting. I prefer a slightly broken trail, so walking back wasn't too bad. The snow was drifting rather impressively however and within an hour my entry prints had been erased in several places. I do wish I had managed to get a photo of the blowing snow, but the angles were off.

I didn't see much in the way of wild life, a few standard winter birds and not much else. There weren't even any deer, but that is likely due to the time of day. The snow was deep enough the boardwalks were almost obscured. I missed go on my standard Secret Trail as I wasn't sure it would be accessible. The normal entrance to it was covered in snowy branches, and walking across the field to find out it was impassible would have been a waste.

The snow had piled up in plenty of strange shapes over weeks of freezing, thawing and wind.

It's amazing how snow can look so much like desert.

random note: I hate the posting interface here and I'm going to have to start doing these in HTML.

Spines

I've always loved cacti. I'm awful at keeping them alive, but I love the different shapes and spines each type sports. Their tendency to grow symmetrically is just an added bonus. This is of course another photo from NYBG. The back section of their conservatory houses cacti and other succulents. In the summer there is also a lovely pond in the courtyard of the conservatory full of lilies, lotus and koi.

Tropical Water Lily

First post on my new blog. I spent the long weekend in New York and went to the New York Botanical Garden on Sunday morning. It was freezing outside, but the conservatory was pleasantly tropical. They are currently highlighting plants of the Caribbean, but are in the midst of setting up their annual orchid show. I toured that show last year and it was phenomenal though crowded.  If you're anywhere near New York while the show is running be sure to visit.  You won't be disappointed.

Daily Photo - George Washington Bridge

I'm not quite done with word press yet; I got a bit distracted in New York. Here is a lit up bridge to make up for it.

Daily Photo - Abby

Yup, I missed another day. Hopefully I'll finish my word press creation by Monday and the daily photos will be moving over there and getting this blog back to hiking with less random tangents.

Wordpress Again

So I spent two more days fiddling with my attempt at Word Press and I'm getting better. I got a PHP and MYSQL book out of the library and it's making quite a bit more sense. (I'm a little annoyed I could have tested this without actually putting the site up, but oh well, too late now.) I'm finally getting somewhere with altering the PHP templates, without blowing them up. I finally have the pages setting their links the way I want, and I've mostly fixed my gallery setup for IE. You would think centering wouldn't be this much trouble. Now I just have to figure out the actual design I want to use, now that the navigation and display issues seem to have worked themselves out. I also went through my pet resources site and got the species profiles to have h1 tags. That would be the site that I'm reading the book to redesign.

Daily Photo - Arches

Pic from last summer. It was probably 85 degrees already.

Daily Photo - Fly

I know very few people share my fascination with house flies, but they do mean warm weather. Bright, sunny pic from July 2009.

Daily Photo - Back to Summer

Water lily from Aug 09.

Daily Photo - Frost

I know, I know. I said I was going to do nice warm summer pics and here I did frost. This little filigree appeared on my front window this morning and I couldn't resist. I can only photograph frost in the winter, so I might as well do it now.

Daily Photo - Whoops

Missed a day so here's two. Both from July of 2009 at Broadmoor.

Orange fungus Dragonfly from before I owned a flash.

Daily Photo - Bee Balm

I'm going to keep posting summer pics until I feel warm again.

Daily Photo - Sunset

Not from tonight, this is from 2009 in July. I'm trying to combat the never ending snow.

Daily Photo - Cleaning

This guy is lucky he's pretty. I did some much needed cage cleaning today and only got him out of his cage attached to my finger. He's been moody for a few years now, but most of the time he lets go. Good thing he can't break the skin. I was more worried about him tearing his teeth or hurting his jaw on my finger. And yes, I missed two days. I may or may not make them up. With the snow on the ground I haven't been taking too many photos. There may or ma not be some new stuff up tomorrow.

Daily Photo - Games

My favorite board game of all time is probably parcheesi. I have no idea why as it isn't a horribly popular game in the US. I think sorry which is vaguely similar is much more commonly available. I was clearing out a closet and found some lonely parcheesi men. I'll have to buy a new set as I'm down to 3 guys for all the colors and the dice seem to have gone missing. however, I refuse to buy a version that uses plastic pieces. I love that the pieces I just found are all wood.