Miscellaneous

Snow on Buddleia

We had a little snowfall today. I must admit that I didn’t expect it. Then again, I haven’t really paid attention to the weather reports lately. It isn’t like I can really change what’s coming and a little snow isn’t going to make much difference. This afternoon the snow was welcome enough, it was a very pretty snowfall and because it’s pretty cold, it was a clean, pristine snow, not all slushy and messy.

Great Falls of the Potomac

Cathy and I went for a walk at Great Falls early this afternoon. The water wasn’t as high as it’s been but it was still rather high (the reading was 6.4 feet, we’ve been there when it was over 9, 10 is flood stage). It was quite muddy, as it tends to be when it’s high. It was also fairly cold, so there was a bit of ice. In fact. rocks and branches near the water were coated with ice from the spray, which was pretty but hard to photograph well. The first picture here is from Olmsted Island, looking upstream at the main part of the river.

Chairmaker’s Bulrush (Schoenoplectus americanus)

From the overlook, we walked back to the C&O Canal and walked about a mile south. The canal was mostly frozen over, although in the areas where the canal was not filled the running water remained mostly ice free. Obviously this time of year, particularly on an overcast day, there wasn’t a lot of color about the place. This bulrush (chairmaker’s bulrush, Schoenoplectus americanus) was a welcome point of color, even if it was just brown against more brown.

Ice Crystals

It was chilly this morning and there was frost on the windscreen of the car. While the car was warming up enough to melt the ice so I could get to work, I took pictures of the ice on the side windows. I think ice crystals are pretty cool (as in neat, although as in low temperature, as well). These were taken without a tripod or anything, because I was just sitting in the car, so it isn’t as sharp as it could be. Oh, well.

Masks

These are hanging on the wall in Dorothy’s bedroom, which, if you recall, is very brightly painted in purple and yellow. These are on one of the yellow walls, obviously. The cat mask is from Venice, bought on our trip there in 2000. The other mask is from last year’s prom. the gold leaved wreath is the laurel wreath that Dorothy made and which was featured here a week ago (see Not Resting On Her Laurels).

Reflections On a Cylinder

It was a busy day at work and I didn’t take any pictures during the day. In the evening, Dorothy asked if we could have Thai carry-out for dinner so I went up to a little place in Olney that we like. I got there a little early for our food to be ready so I looked around for things to photograph. At night, of course, and without flash, the choices are somewhat limited to where there is enough light. I took some pictures of a building with a sycamore tree behind it but the difference between the light from the building’s sign and the light on the tree was too much to get a good picture. When I opened up enough to brighten up the tree the sign was too washed out to be readable.

I saw this round metal pillar with reflections and decided that would have to do for today’s picture. I like reflections and these are nice, in a somewhat plain way. Anyway, it’s all I have. So, reflections on a cylinder.

Mom’s New Computer

This is, or shortly will be, mom’s new computer. There’s a case for it, too, obviously, but this is what it looks like before everything has been assembled. In the middle is the mother board. Because this is mom’s computer, maybe I’ll call that the mom board. In front of that is the CPU (an AMD FX-4130 Zambezi 3.8GHz Quad-Core processor). On the right is 8GB of RAM. It’s pretty amazing that so much memory can be so small. In the back, from left to right, are the cooler for the CPU, the main hard drive, and a DVD burner. That’s all it takes, really. It took about 20 minutes to put it all together. Of course, I still need to install an operating system and load some software. Then it will be ready to use.

Frozen Pond

I went out to take pictures again today. It was chilly and I didn’t wear my jacket, so I didn’t stay out more than about 10 minutes. The pond between my office building and the next has been frozen over for a while now and we had a little snow this morning to cover the ice. It’s a flowing stream so there is a section that is clear of ice and it makes a nice pattern. The difficulty here was the concrete wall at the lower end of the pond. You can see the base of it in the upper left of this picture. Such is life.

Salt On the Floor

One really nice thing about having a foyer paved with stone is that you can come in with wet, muddy, or even salt encrusted shoes and not worry about doing much damage. This is a little of what’s left on the floor next to where Cathy took her shoes off. As you can see, she picked up a little salty water from the streets. The forecast says we’ll get a little more snow overnight, so it’s not going to get better right away. Still, it makes for interesting patterns on the floor.

Solid and Liquid Water

It was another cool day today but I went out for a little while to take pictures. As I came into my office parking lot this morning I saw the pattern made by the ice on the pond next to my building. When I went out I took some pictures of that but I prefer this one, of water flowing in the stream leading into the pond. As you can see, it’s flowing over a rock and that motion is keeping it from freezing, although there is ice all around it. There are more fractal shapes here, as well, in the edge of the ice

Candle Flame

I was looking around for something to photograph this evening. I had taken my camera with me all day but hadn’t even taken it out of its bag. In the evening I realized I needed to do something. There is a candle in the mouth of a bottle in our family room. I”m not sure why it’s there, but there it is. I took a few of that and then realized the picture would be a lot better if the candle were lit. So, I lit the candle and then took a few more pictures. These were taken with the flash and I managed to balance the flash with the candle flame, so the candle itself was lit but the flame still showed up.

The next thought was that it would be better with a dark background so I moved the candle to another room. I positioned it in the kitchen with the door to he back yard behind it. I bounced the flash so it lit the candle but didn’t reflect off the glass in the door. I got a few that show the flame pretty well. It’s still a little static and I think I’d like it better if, perhaps, there was the slightest wind making the flame move a little, but overall, I’m pleased.

Salt Art

Cathy and I took a walk in the neighborhood late this afternoon. It was a mostly overcast day and there is snow on the ground, so there wasn’t a lot of color to be seen. I carried my camera with me, of course, but mostly what I saw to photograph was the patterns of salt on the road.

Mostly, the shapes made me think of Mandelbrot sets (if you don’t know what that is, take a look here on the Wolfram Mathworld site). Some patterns were mostly round and some were more linear but the pattern of the gravel in the asphalt (which is technically called asphalt concrete, did you know that?) helps creates all sorts of patterns in the salt. Anyway, I thought some of them were pretty. Cathy thinks it’s a mess, and I suppose she’s right, but I still find it pretty.

This is one of the last pictures I took on the walk. The ice, on the left, represents the land mass in this map-like image. At least that’s how I see it.

Rear Window

With the snow we’ve had, a lot of salt has been put down on the roads. Since it’s been cold and hasn’t enough to wash it away, most cars have a nice coating of salt. It isn’t the best thing for cars and it’s getting pretty bad. I see a lot with back windscreens that look a bit like this SUV that was in front of me on the way home (stopped at a light). It looks like he may have run out of washer fluid in the back. I’m hoping it will get up at least into the mid 30s and then we have a good, soaking rain to wash everything off.

A Stream Through The Snow

It was another chilly day today. Our outdoor thermometer registered -0.3°F (-18°C). It was partly cloudy and actually snowed fairly heavily between about 2:15 and 2:30. An hour later I walked over to one of the other buildings on campus and then at about 4:30 walked back. As I often do, I carried my camera with me. The sun was reflected in the stream that runs between the buildings and I thought it made a pretty picture. I didn’t bother wading down into the snow for a better angle for a few reasons. First, the the shoes I had on, I almost certainly would have slipped on the hill and landed on my keister. Second, my shoes don’t currently keep water out very well and I wasn’t anxious to have wet feet, especially while walking around in the cold. Bad enough that I wasn’t wearing a jacket.

Fire

When it’s cold outside, and the temperature has currently dropped into the teens, it’s nice to build a fire and feel the warmth on your face. Cathy and I both worked from home today and she was in the family room. That room tends to be a bit cooler than the rest of the house so I build a fire and that warmed her up. As I was building the fire, I was thankful for an attached garage. There are many benefits to an attached garage. I understand that some people claim to put their cars in them, which I think is mostly urban legend. One thing it means for me is that our supply of wood can be got at without going outside. It’s still cold but it is dry and there isn’t any wind. The wood is also kept quite dry, so it lights very easily.

Snow Falling on the Buddleia

Yesterday there was that beautiful sunrise, leading one to think that a storm was coming. Yesterday turned out to be beautiful, bright, and clear, however. Today, it was hard to tell when the sun came up because there were thick clouds covering the sky. No red for warning. It started snowing a little before 8:00 AM here and came down pretty steadily all day. the flakes were tiny so it took a while for the accumulation to amount to anything, but it was cold enough that it only melted on roads that had been treated. This was taken out the back door in the early afternoon. I should mention that I really love the fact that I can work from home, when it’s inconvenient to go out.

Cool Shades

I had another eye check-up today. After the assistant did an initial test of my vision, I waited for the doctor to come in. While I was waiting I decided to take a picture of myself behind the phoropter. I don’t often take pictures of myself and of course, since the pictures posted here are taken by me, I don’t show up very often. The last time I was at the eye doctor’s, though, I posted a picture of the phoropter so I wanted today’s picture to be a little different. Autofocus is a wonderful thing.

United States Flag

It was quite windy this evening, as I drove home. While waiting at a traffic light, I pulled out my camera (like you do), opened my window and took about a dozen pictures of the flag flying at the Chevy dealership on the corner. I’m glad I did because I got busy when I got home and totally forgot about taking pictures. As it turned out, the flag pictures were the only pictures I took today. So, that’s what I have to share with you. It’s not bad, considering that it was night time and taken with just natural lighting (ISO 6400, 1/25 sec., f/5.7).

Tail Lights and Rain

Time for another somewhat abstract image. This is rain on my windscreen with tail lights shining through them. As usual, I was not actually moving when I took this picture. I’m not sure what I get out of this picture but I like it, certainly better than the others I took of the same thing. Maybe it’s an alien planet with a red atmosphere and a huge, bright, white sun. Maybe I just like water and red. I don’t know. Do you?

Dorothy’s Guitar

It was a busy day today. I didn’t get out of my office and then came home and made dinner. In the evening I realized I hadn’t taken a picture today so I thought I’d take a few of Dorothy’s new guitar, her big Christmas present for the year. This is the back, which I think is beautiful. The guitar is a Fender and it sounds great. The back is made of bubinga, an African hardwood from the Guibourtia demeusei tree. It is used because of the mellow sound it produces, as well as the fact that is has an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio.