That's My World Tuesday: Gulls sparkling

Looking across the lake at the gulls, they appeared to be little diamonds sparkling on the water.

Once I was on the other side they were more like a rambunctious roaring rowdy crew.

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The Weekend in Black and White: Ice as a painter

When I empty the ice from the bird bath it makes pictures through melting and refreezing.

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SkyWatch Friday: A taste of pink and blue

We've had a lot of gray skies this week but I did catch a pretty sunset one evening.

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ABC Wednesday: B is for Barn

Last fall I shot these barns, and in some cases I shot them through blurry windows.

I love barns and when I'm on road trips I am on the lookout for barns to shoot.

The first two shots each have multiple barns in close proximity.

I love old barns with rusty tin roofs.

Click for the Home of ABC Wednesday to see what others featured for the letter B.

The Weekend in Black and White: Filling in the spaces

I thought it was somewhat interesting how the sleet filled in the spaces in between the rocks. It almost looks like sand.

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SkyWatch Friday: Sunday Skies

This Sunday was a great day for sky photography from morning to sunset.

We've had a lot of gray skies this winter so it was fun to have an abundance of blue.

Some years I actually love gray skies when we need rain but we've had a wet winter.

The shot above was taken facing west at sunset and the shot below was taken facing east at about the same time.

SKYWATCH FRIDAY HOME.

ABC Wednesday: A is for apples

Apples may be an average A word but I have an abundance of apple photographs in my archives.

The first two shots were taken in Blowing Rock, NC in 2006 of apples which had fallen into the stream and water garden at the Cannon memorial park.

Then in 2007 I took photographs of an apple dish I prepared. I have no idea why I photographed the ingredients or the dish.

These photographs reminded me I haven't made this dish in ages so maybe I will try it again soon.

I also have photographs from Blowing Rock, NC in 2010 and once again the apples were in the stream at the Cannon Memorial park.

If I was a bear, I would almost be brave enough to risk close encounters with humans to gather this abundance of apples.

The last two shots were taken at the apple orchard at the Moses H. Cone Memorial park in Blowing Rock, NC in 2010.

Altogether, I probably have many different kinds of apples shown here but I don't know their names.

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That's My World Tuesday: Beautiful Day for Walking

This Sunday, Bill and I went on a walk around Shelley Lake in honor of a beautiful and warmer day.

There were signs of how cold it has been lately because the creek and part of the lake were frozen.

I've missed walking at the lake. I was waiting for the path to get a chance to melt from our last bought with freezing rain and sleet.

I'm glad I did wait since there were still patches of ice on parts of the path along the creek.

I try to go on photowalks at the lake during each of the seasons because I love to note the differences.

It's like going on a totally different walk depending on the time of year.

I am definitely someone who likes changes in the natural world. I need four distinct seasons with the periodic unseasonal days. We can have big changes in temperature during a given week.

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The Weekend in Black and White: Ice Water

I took the first photograph on Tuesday and the second one on Wednesday.

I couldn't decide which one I liked the best so I'm posting both of them. I wish I had got the entire round part in the first shot but out of the ones I took that day I liked the slightly chopped one the best for monochrome. The light was different on Wednesday and a little melting had started which affected the shot below.

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SkyWatch Friday: Icy Blues

I think ice covered branches are very beautiful against a blue sky.

You can't see much of the sky in the shot below except reflected on the ice topped tree branch. I thought it was interesting how it turned the branch blue.

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ABC Wednesday : Z is for Zen

Someone gave me the book Zen and the art of the Internet almost 20 years ago which makes it ancient history in internet terms.

The first time I saw this cat at the NC Botanical Garden at UNC I thought there was something rather zen about him.

Then zooming ahead to exactly one year later when I saw him at almost the same spot in the garden, lying down, I thought it was a little spooky.

A little later he let me know he let me know he was capable of zeal when attacking an itch.

Click for the home of ABC Wednesday. Zipeedeedoodah, I actually made it all the way to Z.

That's My World Tuesday: Birds and such

Saturday I was on my way to the grocery store and I was thinking to myself, I need to remember to get bird seed because we are likely to have snow on Monday and sleet on Tuesday.

Since I was thinking about snow, at first the snow that started falling seemed like part of my train of thought and then I went, wait a minute, what's that white stuff coming down on my car. That's not supposed to happen for a few days.

It didn't amount to much but it was sort of amusing how I was thinking about getting some food for the wildlife in anticipation of a future event and all of the sudden it started snowing.

I have enjoyed photographing the birds this winter. Some like the carolina chickadee below blend into the trees while others are easier to spot.

I was shooting the male cardinal (bottom of shot below) and didn't even notice the female cardinal above him until I downloaded the photographs.

The brown thrasher has a rather large mouth when it's open.

The woodpecker is very shy and I have to be careful even when photographing from the window lest I scare him off.

The little swinger was fun to watch. He seemed very happy hopping around on my deck swing. I didn't notice my deck swing was growing some kind of fungus until I looked at this shot. Oh well.

Sunday was a beautiful day but very cold.

I'm writing this post on Sunday, although I'll wait and post it on Monday. I imagine I'll be photographing the birds in the snow Monday since I work from home, but I tend to work on posts the day or so before I post them.

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