Lake Needwood in Snow and Ice

It was quite cool this morning. My phone said it was 1°F here and my car agreed. There was a bit of wind, which made it seem a little cooler but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. I had to drop some papers off at the school so I went to work via Lake Needwood. It’s covered in snow and I stopped to take a few photographs before continuing on to the office. Fortunately, the roads are clear because I needed to drive to Richmond later in the day and bring Dorothy home for a short visit.

Fjords

So, have I had a trip to the International Space Station where I took this black and white photo of fjords? Well, no, obviously. As you probably guessed, this is a close up of wet and salt encrusted pavement. But to me it does look a bit like an aerial photograph.

This was in the parking lot at work and the patterns were quite varied and (to me) interesting.

Fresh Snow

We had a small snow squall again overnight and this morning. By midday the sun was out and it was quite beautiful. The roads were never terribly bad but because I had no meetings and what I needed to get done today I could do just as easily from home, I stayed and worked from here.

In the afternoon I cleared the walk and the drive and then went around the yard taking pictures of the snow. It’s notoriously hard to get interesting pictures of snow. It’s sort of white on white, but these footprints that were in the show and that were mostly covered by this recent fall make for nice shadows. Personally I’m not tired of winter yet, although I know some people are. It’s only February, folks.

Urban Barbecue

In my four plus years of taking and posting a photo every day, I have a few days where I only take two or three pictures. They typically don’t end up being everyone’s favorite and I have a feeling today will be a perfect example of that. I met a good friend for dinner at Urban Barbecue this evening. We had a very nice dinner and an enjoyable time. I got there a few minutes before he did and that gave me time to take three pictures of the bar from my table (it was the most interesting view from where I was sitting, without aiming my camera at, and weirding out, other patrons). Not a terrific picture. In fact, I’m a bit embarrassed by it. But it’s all I have to show for today. The dinner and visit were much (MUCH) better than the photo.

Quilt

Yesterday I woke up to find that my back had seized up. I’m not sure what brought this on, other than an aging spine that’s never been exceedingly strong (either figuratively or literally). Whatever the cause, it was not comfortable. I decided to give it a good rest and stayed home today, spending most of the day on the couch reading with an ice pack under the small of my back. That, along with some wondrous pharmaceuticals, helped considerably and by the evening I was able to get up without the aid of a cane. This picture honors the quilt that kept me warm while the ice pack kept me cold. This is one of the many, beautiful quilts that my mom has made over the years.

Keys

I was messing around with my new macro flash equipment today. I’m looking forward to insect season with this. The extra light means I can take pictures at f/32, which means as much depth of field as possible and with a fast enough shutter to stop the movement of those always moving bees and wasps. Up close like this, Depth of field can be just a few millimeters. At f/32 it is more like 10 or 15. Big difference.

These keys, of course, don’t move much by themselves. With a tripod I could tak as long an exposure as I like. But this was hand held at f/32 and 1/200 of a second.

Leeks

Cathy isn’t hugely fond of leeks but I like them a lot. It’s not uncommon to find them in my kitchen but when you have a leeky kitchen, something needs to be done. Tonight I thought a creamy leek sauce would go well with skate wings. I’ve never actually cooked skate before and I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. They are not terribly fishy but have a nice, delicate flavour. The sauce went pretty well with them but I think something a bit tangier might be better in the future. I also happened to have some blood oranges, which I sectioned and put over the fish and that might be a better base than the leeks.