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Here and There…Now and Then |
Silo and Barn
It was snowing this morning. Quite lovely. There’s a big oak tree on Rt. 108 that I’ve thought dozens of times, as I drive by, I really need to stop and take a picture of that tree. So, today I went and I did. But they aren’t as good as I’d hoped, partly because of the power lines running behind the tree. Then I drove around and came across this barn and silo that I think are pretty nice.
Snow
Twinkle, twinkle, little snow
How I wonder where you go
Falling from the darkened sky
On the winter winds you fly
Rose Hips
As I was taking this picture, I startled (and was in turn startled by) a rabbit who took off into the grass. I was able to track him in the snow but each time I got close, he saw me before I saw him and he darted away. Anyway, I’m a sucker for any sort of berry, particularly red berries. And yes, I know rose hips aren’t berries. Strawberries and raspberries aren’t berries, either. So there.
Icy Rose Stem
The picture isn’t as sharp as I would have liked but I love the pattern in the ice on this rose stem.
Dorothy and Some Snow
The top of our small holly tree was bent over until it was touching the ground by the weight of the heavy, wet snow that came down overnight.
Japanese Painting
This reminds me of a Japanese painting (which sort of explains the name I gave it). This is next to the stream near my office.
Loch Menk Monster
Our friends and neighbors built this creature in their front yard. I’m not exactly sure if it’s a centaur or what so we named it the Loch Menkis Monster. Very nice, guys.
Leaf In Snow
I like the shape of this leaf silhouetted against the snow.
UPDATE: It was suggested that this could be named “Fire and Ice”.
Snowman
We had an early snow fall today. We didn’t actually get a lot on the ground, although as near as Damascus there was noticeably more. In New Jersey George got a fair amount and further north it was as much as 30 inches. Still, snow in October is reasonably rare here and it was fun to come across this snow man, even if it is only about two feet tall. I think they must have collected snow off their cars, where it accumulated a bit more.
Dorothy said I should mention that I edited out a political sign for a candidate for the upcoming Rockville mayoral election. It didn’t really add anything to the picture. I didn’t bother to take out the wire supports for the sign and you can see them in the lower left.
Our First Frost
After the snow yesterday, the sky cleared overnight and it got pretty cold. There was a nice frost this morning with the edges of the fallen leaves turned white with a thin border of ice. Lovely.
Wintery View
This is the view out my window on rainy November 10. It is a willow oak (Quercus phellos) in the parking lot of my office building. It’s starting to look decidedly wintery. I love the stark lines, though, and there’s still a bit of color.
I know it’s been a while since I posted anything but I’ve been taking my pictures, as planned. I got a little behind and then when I was ready to work on them, my drive failed. I have backups (actually, that drive is my backup to the server) so nothing should be lost. I’m not completely back up to speed but managed to edit pictures from 11/10 through 11/13. More to come soon.
Winter’s First Snow
We had the first snowfall of the winter today and it was quite nice. We got at least two inches although it never really amounted to anything on pavement, which was warm enough to melt all of it. That includes driveways and sidewalks as well as roads, so driving was not a problem. That’s just as well because I had to go get a few things for the bathroom and Cathy went to a bridal shower for a friend. The snow was pretty on bushes and trees and this arborvitae (Thuja) looked really nice with fluffy white snow held in its branches.
Croydon Creek
I mentioned the other day that Cathy has been looking at topographic maps of the area and that Avery Road used continue as far as Baltimore Road. When Norbeck Road was put in, the section from there to what is now the Croydon Creek Nature Center was abandoned. The last quarter mile or so north of Norbeck was realigned so that they would meet at more or less 90 degrees. Today, Cathy and I walked from the Croydon Creek Nature Center down the hill to Croydon Creek and then back up on the old road bed as far as Norbeck Road. It was a beautiful day. We had been to three stores and it was really nice to get away from the crowds for a little bit. It’s a pretty, little park and worth a visit if you want to get away briefly.
American Beech Leaves
I love beech trees in the winter. They hold their leaves which turn a beautiful, copper brown. They are especially nice against all the grey of a normal winter woodland and with the sun shining on and through them they are particularly nice. I’ve had a few pictures of beech leaves in the fog, which is also magical, but today was sunny and they were glowing in the sun. It’s been something of a crazy winter so far, with temperatures down around zero (Fahrenheit) and then up into the 60s. We have had a few minor snows but nothing of any great depth. Also, they have come when it was cold enough that it was easily swept off the sidewalk instead of needing to be shoveled. But there’s a lot of winter yet, so you never know.
Sycamore Leaf
It was a beautiful day and I went out into the woods for a little while during lunch time. There was ice on a drainage pond in the woods near my building but in the sun it was quite pleasant. I got down onto the ground and took some pictures of this sycamore leaf (American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis). They are large and heavy and really pretty with the sun shining through them. I also found a small deer antler that had been shed. It was only six or seven inches long and had no forks, but I picked it up to keep, anyway.
Grass
I took a few more pictures of snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) early this afternoon. They are nearly ready to open, probably in the next day or two if the weather remains to balmy. Nevertheless, I just posted a picture of snow drops and I try not to repeat too often or too quickly (except for baby pictures, those are always allowed). I’ll be back to them shortly, when they have well and truly begun to bloom. In the meantime, I went up into the upland portion of the 12 acre lot next to my office. This is filled to a large extent with ragweed and mugwort, as well as goldenrod, grass, and a few small trees. It was quite wet because of the 48 hours or so of rain that we recently got. The soles of my shoes are cracked and water seeped in, soaking my socks. But it was nice to be outdoors on such a beautiful day.
Snow Squall
The forecast was for snow today. It’s been in the upper 40s and even the low 50s lately, so I wasn’t really expecting it to amount to much. In the morning it was overcast but no precipitation. Cooler but still just above freezing. At about 2:00 PM it started snowing and by 3:00, when this picture was taken, it was coming down fairly hard. We probably got about 2 inches in all, but it was pretty wet and not what I’d call winter wonderland type snow. Still, the falling snow was pretty against the bare trees and the copper colored Japanese maple leaves in our neighbor’s yard.
Spring Snow
Snow in March isn’t that unusual here. Of course, if you listen to the radio this week you might not get that impression. I heard a report that breathlessly told us how long its been since we had a snow like this was forecast to be this late in the year. Well, that’s possible, I suppose. A couple problems. Most importantly, the actual snowfall didn’t live up to the hype. We got maybe four inches of very wet snow. I remember a snowfall on March 18 not that long ago that was two or three times worse. But it’s March 21, which is, as I’m sure you can figure out, later in the year than March 18. Not by a lot, though. Anyway, as usual, much ado about not much. Quite pretty, actually.
First Snow of Autumn
We had our first snowfall of the autumn today. It wasn’t particularly heavy and didn’t amount to much but the county had announced last night that there would be a two hour delay this morning. This morning they cancelled school for the day. For those of us who don’t mind driving in a little slush, this meant anyone preferring not to drive stayed off the road. That made driving all the easier and it was pretty quiet at work. Plenty of time to do, of course, but not a lot of people. Not that people actually come to my door very often, in any case. Getting home was no worse than getting to work and we left a little early so as not to drive in the dark, as the temperature dropped, possibly below freezing.
Lake Needwood
Cathy and I went for a walk on Lake Needwood after church today. It was overcast but pleasant and we walked part way around the lake. I took this picture from near the boat house at the southeast part of the lake, looking north, more of less. The trees are bare and with the overcast sky, they looked particularly stark and gloomy. That’s not to say they aren’t beautiful, though. I think they look pretty nice. The water was quite still, also, which added to the mood.
For the few of you who follow me here, I apologize for the brief hiatus. My main workstation has four hard drives (including a relatively small boot SSD). Two of them, one 5TB and the other 6TB are dedicated to photographs. Unfortunately, I have a lot of photographs and they two drives are full. That kept me from being able to “process” my photographs for about 10 days (not that I rushed to rectify that matter, of course). I ordered another 6TB drive so I should be set for a while now.
Frost
It was chilly out this morning and everything was covered with frost. I started my car and while it was warming up a little, I took some photos of frost on the leaves in the yard. Once the sun began to hit them, the frost started to melt but I wanted to get them with the sun shining on them, so I moved around the yard as the sun moved to new leaves. I really like looking at frost and don’t mind the cold too much. It wasn’t all that cold, in any case, only for or five degrees below freezing. Colder days are almost certainly ahead for us, as winter is only just starting and doesn’t get into full swing until next month.
Clopper Lake, Seneca Creek State Park
We were out and about today. Cathy, Dorothy, and I made a trip to the Lancaster Dutch Market where it seemed half the county had gathered. In spite of the crowds, the line at the butcher was relatively short and I bought a few things. Cathy waited in the much longer line for pretzels and sausage rolls (which are the main reason we went, they are amazing). From there we drove to Seneca Creek State Park and drove through, seeing the lights that have been set up as a money maker for the park (and which we have no real desire to wait in line for after dark). I took a few pictures of Clopper Lake and like this one pretty well. I made bangers and mash for dinner, with roasted garlic and Parmesan cheese added to the mash. Comfort food.
Snow In The Trees
We had our first real snow of 2019 starting early yesterday afternoon. It showed a bit earlier in the week but didn’t accumulate at all. This time we ended up with about six inches on the ground this morning. It was a few degrees below freezing and the snow was quite pretty, although it was fairly heavy when I shoveled it off of the walk and driveway. This is a view up into the trees in our neighborhood and I really love the lines of dark bark and the white snow. We were out yesterday evening driving in it, which wasn’t a lot of fun, but it meant that we got to see our good friend, Karlee, so it was well worth it. Today we’re pretty much sticking around the house. Hopefully the roads will be clear by tomorrow, when Dorothy plans to leave for school. There wasn’t much snow north of here, so the majority of her trip shouldn’t be affected, in any case.
Snow
We got about six inches from late Saturday until midday Sunday. At that point I shoveled the walk and driveway and the picture from yesterday was taken about that time. Then it started snowing and was still coming down until about 11:00 PM. This morning we got up at about 5:30 and Dorothy planned to leave at 6:00 to drive back to school. There was an additional six to eight inches on the sidewalk ramp, so we got between 12 and 14 inches, I’d say. I got everything shoveled and the snow off of Dorothy’s car. In the end she waited until the sun had come up and left at about 8:00. Happily there was not much snow to our north and she had no problems getting back to Massachusetts. The sun came out later in the morning and it was quite beautiful out.
Deer Figurines in the Snow
We’ve had a fair amount of rain lately. In fact, we had a really wet fall and winter so far. It normally rains more here in the winter months but, and I haven’t actually checked the specifics, this year seems worse than normal. There is still some snow, although the temperature has been above freezing. These two brass deer are in among Cathy’s potted plants at the top of our driveway. I like the way they are standing in the snow, looking out at the cleared portion of the drive. They seem pretty unconcerned by the cold. The forecast has a cold front moving in late tomorrow, with temperatures predicted to drop into the single digits tomorrow night.
Water Freezing
It’s been a reasonably mile winter so far, with only a few really chilly days. The forecast had temperatures dropping this afternoon with a low in the mid single digits (Fahrenheit) tonight. In the last afternoon I went out and it was definitely colder than it had been. The standing water on the lawn in the back yard was starting to freeze and making some really pretty crystal formations. It’s not the easiest thing to photograph but I think this one shows it pretty well. This ice is very thin, less than a millimeter, but by the morning the water will almost certainly be frozen solid.
Freezing Pond
The temperature didn’t get as low as we had been led to believe overnight, but it was 10°F this morning, which is chilly enough. I wear a light jacket when it gets this cool out, although really what I needed was gloves. The steering wheel of the car was pretty cold. I took some pictures of the pond between my office building and the next early this afternoon. The water level has dropped a few feet from when the ice started to form, so there were large sheets of ice around the banks of the pond that were left behind as the water moved out from under them. There was also ice on branches that had been underwater but now were about a foot above. It was quite pretty.
Ice
It was significantly warmer today and the ice was starting to melt. I had to walk across campus to a meeting (well, I didn’t have to walk but I chose to). After the meeting I went out into the woods for a little while to take some pictures. There is a stream running through the woods and a very boggy area next to it with ice throughout. I took a few pictures of the ice, which to me looks a lot like contour maps, which I find quite beautiful. I think I’m drawn to things that are fleetingly beautiful. Their transient nature hurts because I know they will shortly be gone but perhaps that adds to their appeal at the same time. A sunset, a pattern in ice, a beautiful and dramatic sky, they all last for a moment and then are gone forever.
Hamamelis (Witch Hazel)
I’m a huge fan of witch hazel (Hamamelis species). They’re small trees well suited to the suburban landscape and wonder of wonder, they bloom in mid-winter! Many years ago my father, Cathy, and I went to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton Regional Park in February and I remember falling in love with witch hazel at that time. Now whenever I see them in bloom, I remember my dad and remind myself that this is a tree I want to plant in my yard. Now that I have a space in the front yard that needs a small tree, this may be the spring when one gets planted. There are varieties with red, orange, and yellow flowers and I think all of them are terrific. The yellow, perhaps, stands out as being the brightest but they’re all worth the effort.
Snow Squall
We had a little snow squall today, starting a little after noon. The temperature was above freezing when it started and when this photo was taken from my office window. The issue wasn’t really with the amount of snow that we were forecast to get, which ranged from two to four inches. The problem was that the temperature was supposed to drop to about 15°F (-9°C) and all the water and slush on the roads would freeze. When it snows at those temperatures, the snow isn’t nearly as slick as snow just below freezing. But ice is pretty slick regardless. Anyway, we’ll see what this does to tomorrows school closings. Not that we care so much about those now. The main effect they have on us is the reduction in traffic for our commute.