I could just take some time off from this blog and put on a repeating loop of the posts of the last few weeks (in summary, cold, very cold, darned cold, windy, snowy) and nobody would likely be missing anything new. Another week into March and we are still in the low minus 20s (or so) most nights and up into the low teens in the daytime. Only a couple of weeks to "calendar" spring, which translates to about another couple of months here before we can start getting excited about such things as gardening and riding outdoors. Ah well, that's all about par for the course so no point getting excited about it.
I take the camera with me to the barn most days, hoping for raven sightings (mostly a bust. I see them every now and then but can never get the shots I want) but also with an open eye for whatever might be of interest. I've done some sunset chasing in the past week, with mixed results. The dog people (agility workshop) had the riding ring rented during the days, disrupting my normal riding schedule, so I was heading out to check on my gelding around suppertime most days, in quest of sunset photo ops on the way home. At least the sun is working its way back to this part of the world for longer periods of time. In mid-December I would be catching sunset shots at 4:30 in the afternoon. Now it's close to 7PM. That's got to be progress of some sort!
We had a good (or bad, depending on how you view it) dump of snow early last week. Shot one shows the new "curtains" I found on a studio window the next morning.
Shot two is another of the series of sculpted snowdrift shots I've been collecting. This one is in a reliably good spot for these drifts, just north of the jumper ring at the barn.
Shot three is of the "cosy interior" sort. Cosiness is a very good thing at this time of year. Jim has set out to do a very demanding jigsaw puzzle, the whole process made yet more challenging by the ongoing assistance of Scout, our ancient kitty. We were dog-sitting our grand-dog Arrow while her family were in Panama, and you can see Arrow's intense face in the lower left of this shot. Arrow's main purpose in life seems to be cat herding, a pastime she can only indulge here.
Given that the cat is now twenty years old, we worry about a likely not-too-distant future when Arrow won't have a cat to herd when she visits. Not sure how we'll handle that one.
Shot four was taken just outside the entry to the stables as I was heading home after one of my suppertime horse-check outings. This kind of sums up the weather we've been having.
Shot five is another of the post-barn sunset series. I was going home by way of a more "photo-friendly" back road, and was surprised to see this visual on the road ahead of me. There seemed to be a sort of snow-crystal fog hovering over the road and fields, coloured by the sun which had almost set. Just as good as a flashy classic sunset in its own way.
