mowed lawn

snow on highway

I took this picture 3 years ago when we had a snow storm that dropped a few inches on us in March. Now I know much of the world wouldn't think twice about this but here in North Carolina having even an inch of snow is pretty unusual any time, let alone in March.

This year we had a few dustings of snow but nothing that accumulated. Oddly enough, I don't mind. :-)

gray skies and tree

I took this picture this evening when a storm was approaching. I liked the contrast between the gray skies and the limbs of the tree. Half an hour later it was pouring rain but I was beneath an awning just watching it come down. Sure got cold quick.

torrential rain

Sometimes it's raining too hard to keep paddling. It's weather like this that has my poor tortured camera in such bad shape. And flipping over a few times hasn't helped. But as uncomfortable as rain like this is, I still love the gray sky and how it virtually merges into the gray of the water. Not easy to see in this picture, but when I was still out on the lake--soaked to the bone--it was really a great view. Albeit moist. Oh, and windy!

muddy and wet

I went slogging through a marshy area to see this lake. It probably wasn't worth the damage to boots and pants but I was curious to see what the lake looked like on this side. For a minute or so it reminded me of that scene in The African Queen where Bogie and Hepburn were hauling the boat through the narrow channel. However I didn't get any leeches on me--and I definitely looked to make sure!

working

This is where I work. Why is it that snow looks so pretty but can be so annoying? The building looks a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside, and the snow makes it prettier still.

a bay in SC

I took 6 pictures trying to get this right. All from different spots but in close proximity. Only two worked at all and even those didn't get the amazing look. This is one of those two. I've never been able to decide which I like better. I took the pictures in late December back in 2003 in South Carolina. This one was taken about 30 minutes past dawn with the last wisps of fog still on the water.

Winter pics from 2001

These pictures weren't taken with Daisy but rather with my first digital camera, a 1.3 megapixel Olympus that has been retired since. You can tell the focus isn't very good and of course the resolution is a lot lower.

The picture above was taken the day before a large snowstorm hit. I climbed up a small moutain to get a few shots of the Trilakes area since I suspected I'd not be able to get up there again once it had snowed. The climb was short but too steep for icy conditions.

I took this one the day after the picture above was taken. While the setting implies quiet desolation, I actually took the picture only a few steps away from a road.

I love gray skies like that and while it doesn't translate as well in pictures, I can often recall the feeling of being under those stark gray skies just by looking at the picture.



The lighting in this one was tricky. There really wasn't enough light to get detail in my picture. This was taken in the late afternoon and I needed to get off the mountain fairly quickly and wasn't able to wait for the sky to clear up.

I think the moutain straight ahead in the picture is Ampersand Mountain which I had hoped to also climb--but the snow that arrived the next day eliminated that idea. Just too steep and icy back there near Ampersand.

turtles

I mentioned yesterday that I saw a great many turtles while hiking near a lake. Here's 7 of them out on this partually submerged tree. Normally when you come up on them all you see is the shell--but as soon as they hear you, the heads poke up and they're much more interesting to look at. Unfortunately this attentive look they adopt also means that they're about to slip back into the water. Before I approached close enough to get a picture, there were nearly two dozen turtles on the tree, but my approach caused a turtle exodus which left us with these 7 brave ones.

oops. Maybe that 8 turtles. I didn't see the one over on the lower right side. It's a bitty one.

lake in Spring

I took this picture today while on a short hike around a lake. The water looks nice in this picture but it's an affect of the angle of the sun. It's actually kinda muddy and mildly polluted. Lots of turtles though--I saw at least 100 during my hike. And you can see a boat out there fishing so I assume there's fish also.

A lovely Spring day here in early March.

nasty and wet

This is Bogie. This is Bogie's Christmas present, already wet with drool and all rough edged with chew marks. Still, of all the presents distributed that year (2001)--none was appreciated more.

When you throw that frisbee, Bogie just sails through the air. It's about the only way in which she's a typical Australian Shepherd. That dog is scared of everything unless she's chasing something or in someone's lap. Weird dog but she's my brothers so I endure the nasty and wet frisbee throwing. Ewwww!

water cascade

I was hiking back in the woods not that far from the Smoky Mountains near the border of SC and Tennessee when I took this picture. That was in August of 2002. I was tracing a stream up a ways and took this picture of a cascading torrent. Just up the hill a ways was a really pretty waterfall... but that's another post. LOL

damn it

I took this picture 2 years ago while traveling at Easter time. The dam here is on the Georgia / South Carolina line. Depending on conditions, water is typically released once or twice a day. In times of drought the release number is lower but since river commerce downstream needs adequate water levels for barges to move about, the Army Core of Engineers releases some water no matter how little rain falls.

I just missed a release by a few hours and there wasn't likely to be another one for at least a day, so I moved on and never got the shot I wanted. But this one is interesting in its own way.

old bark and icy stream

I was hiking north of Durham, NC after a rare snowstorm in January 2003 when I took this shot. I liked the effect of the extreme texture on the bark of the old tree against the silky surface of the ice clad stream.

Pear trees but no partridges

A picture of some pear trees at the border of my yard. I took this today after work. While it got up to 60 today, it's supposed to be in the mid 20s overnight. I hope all the flowers coming up now don't freeze!

kittens in repose

I took this picture at the home of my real estate agent a number of years ago while I was looking to buy a house. She needed to return home to check on one of her kids so I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the wildlife in the house.

I love the tufts of hair in their ears. Kittens can be so cute. Too bad they grow up.