January through March 8, 2019

I'm going to start with shots from this past week and move backwards to January 2019. 



It isn't unusual in the North Carolina Piedmont for early spring flowers to begin in late February and get hit by a cold snap in March.

 

What made this year unusual was that we had some warm days in early February and by the second week in February there were already quite a few early spring flowers.



The first 3 shots show what happened to those flowers that jumped the gun after we had some very cold nights.



I made a point of photographing as many flowers as possible as they began to bloom knowing they were unlikely to last very long.



It doesn't bother me how brief some of the spring blooms will be because it was actually nice to have a lot of February blooms no matter how brief.



I find expectations have a lot to do with how I feel in general.



It's not that I'm suggesting low expectations as a positive in all situations but as regards to the aspects outside my control like how long early flowers last, I don't have any expectations.



In general the older I get the less I let expectations cause me to be disappointed.



Of course that's easier when the majority of your life is over so no matter what happens it won't be interminable. 



I'll admit that I have to remind myself of that when I watch the news and even comedy about the current political situation.



Also, since I have an adult child who will hopefully have close to 5 more decades ahead, or maybe more, I don't want their life to be filled too long with the toxic politics we have in the United States.



I remember thinking there would never be anyone worse than Richard Nixon in the White House.



I think never is a good word to avoid.



That said, I don't want to contemplate a worse political situation than what we have now where I live.



I've almost reached the earliest shots I took between January and March.



There is something very beautiful to me about a still winter day.



I admire the patience of the fishers.



It's certainly seems like the life of a water bird is difficult.



There's something I like about the mass of gulls that look like tiny jewels from a distance.



When they start to fly they almost look like white moths from far away.



Reflections are always interesting to me.



The full moon through the trees is fun to watch.



I took the last shot with my cell phone of the downtown Durham, NC post office. 

Winter 2018 - 2019

We had an early snow for us between December 8 and 10, 2018. 

The shot above almost looks like the sun is rising but that's a street light on the right and that's where the sun sets in relation to my house.

The shot below is of my neighbor's son's play house at the top of his slide. 

Below is my front yard with St. Francis almost completely covered.

We had a late fall so after it snowed the rest of the leaves fell from from the trees.

I always see juncos (above) in the winter when I put out food during a storm.

I see cardinals (male above and below) all the time as well as rufous-sided towhees (female below right).

I think that's a sparrow below. I get sparrows and some finches mixed up.

Below is a female cardinal right and a male rufous-sided towhee. 

Peace and I wish everyone a magical season during whatever they may celebrate. 

Late September through Late November 2018

The hard part with blogging so much less than I used to is it's harder to select photographs. 



Late September was almost like summer although the dogwoods did begin changing early as they always do.



There have been more egrets on the lake near my house lately than heron.



I used to see great blue heron frequently but they seem to be supplanted by the egrets for some reason.



Heron hang out at a lot of different lakes in my area so they may have decided other places have better fishing.



The guy above looks a little off kilter.



The shot above and quite a few below are ones I took in the NC mountains. 



The mountains are always ahead of central NC with fall color but everywhere was later than usual in my state this year. 



I got some great contrast with the light playing on the mountains.



We drove on the blue ridge parkway from the southern end to the northern end of the mountain range.



The weather was better than expected.



It was supposed to rain the whole time we were there but it ended up with a very small amount of rain that we drove out of.



I think I love the rocks in the mountains as much as anything.



I think the cyclist below must be very tough.



I wouldn't be able to ride a bike in the mountains much less in the rain.



And here comes the sun.



The rest of the shots are at home and on Shelly Lake walks



The bittersweet on my deck is very abundant this year.



I photographed the camellias a couple of weeks ago but we had some very cold temperatures at night so even being hardy they've probably all been zapped by the freezing weather.



We still have a lot of fall color in central NC although the leaves are changing and falling very fast now.



I heard a story on NPR about how climate change has been gradually making fall leaves change later.



It does seem to get later and later.



There are a lot of evergreens at Shelley Lake so there's green year round.



One of the people in the shot below had a red jacket which looked like part of the leaves from a distance.



The gulls have returned for the winter.



The cormorants have also returned. Both gulls and cormorants go to other places in the spring.



I miss the cormorants when they leave.



There are gulls year round at other lakes near me but I usually only see cormorants in the fall and winter.



I think I like reflections in the fall as much as anything.



Even without colorful leaves in the reflection below I think the duck is photogenic.



I'm guessing by next weekend there won't be hardly any leaves left on the trees. 



I used to think of all the fall leaves dropping well before Thanksgiving but that hasn't happened lately here.