A Walk In The Ice

I have thoroughly enjoying looking at all the snow pictures on FB, blogs, and flickr. They are gorgeous! My daughter who lives three hours away has about 6" in her yard. I'm a little envious, Okay, I'm a lot envious! It is white here, it could be mistaken as snow, but it's not...it's sleet! There were a few snowflakes that fell, but they were few and tiny and you had to look really hard to see them.

 

 

Ice is almost as pretty as snow until you look at the trees. Sleet doesn't stick to trees very well!  Isn't this quite a contrast...fall leaves still on the trees and ice on the ground.

 

 

Another sign of fall lingering.

 

 

After capturing the big picture, I decided to zoom in for a closer look.

 

 

 

Look at the size of the ice around these little blades of grass. This area was under the corner of the house where it was dripping off the roof.

 

 

A little lichen and ice on a rotten limb that fell from one of our trees.

 

Icicles hanging in front of the headlight on my SUV creates a pretty cool abstract.

 

Ice is not what you want for winter precipitation, but when it falls as sleet it's not quite as bad. Sleet doesn't stick to power lines and trees, so the power usually stays on. Ours was off for about three hours, but we have a backup gas heater and had plenty of food. The roads did become quite slick, but we didn't have anywhere to go. We were inside safe and warm watching it turn white.  When the sun came out for a little while today, I couldn't resist bundling up and walking around in the crunchy ice.

 

I'm praying that wherever you are, you're safe and warm.

 

Linking with Helen's Weekend Walk at A Flash Of Inspiration.

A Little Bit Of Ice

A very cold artic blast of air hit our state this week. We'll have below normal temperatures for Thanksgiving. Last year it was in the 70's, this year...highs in the 40's. Big difference! We seemed to have dodged the bullet in terms of weather. We only got the cold air and little bit of freezing rain and sleet. I know some of you have had a rough time with heavy snow and ice. When I saw the icicles beginning to form on the power lines and trees, I knew it was time to brave the cold and get some pictures. Good thing I went right on out, it didn't last long.

 

 

My camellia's were quite pretty covered with shiny drops of ice and rain. They are such hardy bushes and love to bloom in the colder weather. It's kind of like the last hurrah of the season.

 

The wind blowing  causing the ice on the leaves and branches to crackle and pop. It almost sounded like music to me.

 

 

 

 

You know I love cold weather. Colder weather lets me add an extra quilt to our bed and wear my winter robe and fuzzy slippers. Not only do I enjoy the cold weather, I have the holidays with family to look forward to. Wherever you are, I hope you're safe and warm today!

Walking in The Woods Again

I've missed walking in my woods. During the summer months it's pretty miserable out there with the swarms of mosquitoes and the many ticks.  We also have a lot of copperheads around here that hide so well in the leaves. I pretty much stay our of the woods during the summer and early fall months. Now that it has turned cold, I couldn't wait to take a walk and see what I could discover in my woods.

 

There's plenty of rotten wood where a variety of lichen grows.

 

 

I discovered this lichen growing on a leaf. I don't think I've every seen lichen on a leave before.

 

 

I never know what I'll find along the creek bank. This time it was leaves that were once under water and are now covered in sand.

 

It's always interesting to look for shadows in the sand.

 

Seed pods are my favorite thing to look for and photograph.

 

I'm grateful today for the woods I can wander in, for the beauty of nature I can  capture and for colder weather so I can trek through those beautiful woods.

 

 

Linked with Helen's Weekend Walk at A Flash Of Inspiration.

The Spray Rig

No photo excursions again this week. Mr. H's surgery went well and he's recuperating nicely. Actually, he's doing much better than we thought, but I'm still not venturing far from home. We get out and walk each day, but I'm more concerned with him falling than shooting pictures. So, here I go again, looking for something close to home, but something that interests me. Something different than fall leaves or mushrooms. As I walked across my parents back yard, I saw my dad's old spray rig sitting neglected along the property line.

 

My dad was a painter. He painted many a house inside and out. He was also know to balance on scaffolding and paint water towers, long before safety ropes were mandatory. When he spray painted structures he would hook up his rig and head out.

 

 

There wasn't a lot of towing regulations back then, but at least he had a safety chain. Which leads to a story. In the late 50's and early 60's we moved several times.  We lived in a mobile home or trailer as we called it, so it was easy to pick up and move. Just unhook the electrical, water, and sewer, pack a few breakables, tape the drawers and doors shut, and we were ready to go. Dad lead our little procession driving a sawed-off fire engine that pulled the trailer. Mom drove the station wagon and pulled the spray rig. On this particular day as we were traveling down the highway, the spray rig came loose (maybe that was before the safety chain!). It went off the road and into a deep ditch.  Knowing that we couldn't get it out mom began chasing down dad. Evidently dad had the petal to the metal, because we went miles before we caught up with him and had him pull over. Of course, then we had to backtrack to get the rig. It could have been very serious, but we laugh about it now. How mom had to speed to catch dad pulling a house trailer.

 

 

 

Back to the spray rig and all it's rusty parts. There are pulleys and belts that sent the motor spinning...

 

 

building up pressure to spray the paint. I know it looks like I took this pressure gauge sideways, but I didn't that's the way it is on the tank.

I wonder if my mom knew dad's spray rig had a devil on it. She probably thought it was possessed when it came undone and went flying off the road!

 

 

My dad has always believed a little bit of electrical tape could fix anything. Note the splatters of paint on the tape. 

 

Paint is splattered over everything including the brake lights.

 

 

Dad wasn't one to spend useless money. I guess you could say he recycled before recycling was cool. When he build the spray rig he used what he had on hand or found in junk yards. Notice the brake lights...one square...one round. But, hey, they did the job and were probably free! 

 

 

I found lots of grunge, rust and textures.

 

 

 

Dad retired many years ago, and the spray rig has mostly just sat in this spot. Only brought out a few times to paint something around the house. It's deteriorating and will probably be taken apart soon, so I wanted to capture a few photos of it.

 

Linked with Helen's Weekend Walk at A Flash Of Inspiration

Pumpkin Picking Time!

It's the weekend again!

My, how time is flying right now!

It's time for my Weekend Walk post with Helen at A Flash Of Inspiration.

So, where'd I go this week?

Pretty much nowhere once again.

Last week it was the transmission repair that kept me without a car and this week Mr. H has been in a lot of back pain that resulted in doctor visits, MRI, and the bad news that he has a rather large cyst on his spine. He'll be needing some surgery, but we can't see the Neurosurgeon until late November. So anyhow, I'm home with him, he's not bed ridden or anything I just feel guilty going on a photo shoot when he's stuck at home and in pain. I guess I've said all that to say this...my walks will be very close to home for the next several weeks. I'll have to get really creative!

I was able to spend a very wonderful morning with my son and his family at the pumpkin patch. I never took my kids to the pumpkin patch. I really don't think I knew there was such a thing. We always picked out our pumpkin at the grocery store. I feel like they really missed an important part of childhood. It would have been so much fun. Well, they have their own families now and going to the pumpkin patch is one of their family traditions. Sometimes I'm able to go with them!

This is my son's family. His wife is holding their littlest, whose six months old, and my son is helping their oldest, whose four, find the perfect pumpkin.

Both of these boys just seem to absorb everything around them. They both look at things in a deep, concentrating way.

 

 

 

Isaac wasn't too sure about all those bright orange things surrounding him. He did finally relax and propped his arm up on the nearest pumpkin.  Of course, the pumpkins were all out in the bright sunlight, so it wasn't ideal for pictures; lots of shadows.

 

 

 

There was a large culvert with hay bales piled on each side so you could climb over it or run through it. This is my favorite picture of Aaron. I love all that motion and his happy smile! I lost count of how many times he ran through the tunnel!

Aaron loves all types of trains. It doesn't matter whether they're real or "fake" as he calls them. He's on the train with his cousin anxiously waiting to pull out of the station.

 

 

 

Aaron helped me look through the pumpkins to find one with  a curly stem. Most of the stems were cut off pretty straight and short, but he finally spotted one and it's perfect!

I also picked up some tiny pumpkins and gourds to put in my little blue doll chair.

 

 

It was a wonderful day with family and friends!

Lots of smiles and laughing!

Wonderful memories!

Unnoticed

Due to unforeseen difficulties I wasn't able to go anywhere for a photography walk this past week.  The transmission in Mr. H's truck went out so he had to use my vehicle to get to work.  Now, I don't mind at all being home all week, but I did have to get creative for my Weekend Walk. I walk the same road every day for exercise, so I decided to take my camera. My goal was to see what I could discover that would be unnoticed if I were driving down this road.

 

Here's the top eight finds of the week.

 

1. spider webs

 

 

 

2. bare limbs against a beautiful blue sky

 

 

3. playing card

 

 

4. muscadine

 

 

5. seedpod

 

 

6. pretty yellow flower

 

 

7. fall leaves

 

 

8. gorgeous light as I walked back up the driveway

 

Keeping my eyes open for unnoticed things made my walks go faster and they were less boring!

 

Have a great week and look for things that would normally be unnoticed.

 

"One can only see clearly
If one is going slowly
Quick motion creates a life-blur."

                          ~Terri Guillemets

Linking up with Helen's Weekend Walk at A Flash Of Inspiration.