AstroGypsies

So more than 40 cm of snow (16″) in the last few days…we have been doing a lot of clearing! The wind has been howling, the drifts have been substantial, thanks Mother Nature, you can knock it off now! Ha!

Ah Canada…:) It will all eventually melt! They had to bring in the big tractor with the blade yesterday to even clear the road, yeah! We didn’t even hear him come in the wind was howling so hard! I am sure we can get out, although it did snow a few more inches after they cleared. I imagine town is a mess, stay off the roads has been the general consensus, so that is what we are doing! At least there is sun!…and that damn wind! Go away wind! Even the birds look pissed off!

I made sure there was plenty of seed and peanuts to go around! The squirrels didn’t look exactly pleased either, like “Lady! WTF???” at least the cats are enjoying their close company on the back deck. Yes, I shoveled it for them and the squirrels! It’s that fall down in the snow because you can’t walk and then you can’t get back up because it’s too deep kind of snow and shit, there is nothing for you to grab onto to pull yourself up kind of Fall! Trust me, I came in looking like a Storm trooper.

It’s CTV…cat TV;) No one was keen to go out this morning but they did have a quick look after we cleared! Yesterday…forget it, they ran from the door! Ha! We do NOT do blizzards Müther!

It was all nice and sparkly with the little bit of snow we had last week, melting, beautiful icicles and bokeh through the trees! That magical bit of Winter…not the “Where is my old farmers suit we have to shovel” part! Cabin fever with no photography;) Ha!

I do love to photograph birds but sometimes I just need a landscape, or something, other than birds! I have no bugs right now, except my computer spider who has been in hibernation I think! Smart spider, no frogs or snakes…cats and birds and those sneaky little squirrels!:)

As the storm warnings were going out I glanced up out over the lake and couldn’t believe I was seeing the fullish moon rising in a narrow gap between the horizon and the clouds…♫♪♫ Bad Moon Rising ♫♪♫ A nice surprise, followed by four days of snow! Ha! I’ve been trying to capture the frost patterns on the glass panels on our small deck, geez, another place I might have to shovel! Ha! They looked like spider webs one morning! They don’t form every day, only when they have the perfect mix of cold and humidity! Once the sun hits them later in the morning, they are gone, melted away.

Winter glorious Winter…just depends on the day doesn’t it? I feel sorry for the deer right now, having to trudge through all the deep snow. I imagine they will be using the road!

I was trying to be “wery, wery” quiet as this doe was slowly walking up the hill from the lake with this years fawn…as quiet as you can be sitting under a sun umbrella flapping in the wind to keep the snow flakes off…I wanted her picture with no branches in the way…hmm…I’ll keep trying! No snow umbrella the last few days, it would have been a Mary Poppin’s maneuver and I would have been sailing over the lake with the howling winds! Ha!

The cardinal has been quiet, or maybe I haven’t been in the right place at the right time! The small birds have been pretty quiet as well, I can’t imagine flying in blizzards!

Somehow I think it must be easier for the larger guys, but then again, maybe not!

So yeah, a lot of birds! Ha! Our Brown Creeper has been showing up pretty regularly, puts a smile on my face!

OK, enough birds! Ha! Thank goodness for cats! I bought a string of LED lights at Candian Tire and decided to give the cats their own Tinder shots;) Boudoir for Gamora, Rocket, well, he just wanted to eat the lights until I could convince him to sit still and Groot wanted NOTHING to do with it…we’re working on it…still;) ha! You have to find things to do on those blizzard like days!

Part of the fun of photography is trying new things! I have really enjoyed our Lanark County Camera Club meetings. Wonderful people, new ideas and great photos. My trying to get a snowflake shot didn’t pan out, first you need those really big snow flakes, then a dark background, then a macro lens…OK, two outta three wasn’t bad but maybe we’ll invest in new lens this month! And blowing bubbles that freeze, was all set, only to realize, we don’t have a single straw in our house, either I go to McDonalds, nah, or maybe I can buy one…back to Canadian Tire! Trying to stay out of trouble folks! I was hoping for some snowflake shots with the horses and donkeys but either the weather, or my energy levels have not panned out…will keep trying! I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Winter… yet…at least the back sliding glass door in now unfrozen! Woohoo! Saludos amigos! Stay warm and do some Hurkle-durkling! “Yup, the Scots know how to deal with this kind of weather: While it has fallen out of use, to hurkle-durkle is “to lie in bed or lounge about when one should be up and about” It is closely tied with the word hurkle, which means to hunker, or sit huddled, in a crouched position for warmth, which makes hurkle-durkle the perfect word for the cold winter months“…sounds good to me!