A little freezing rain

Some freezing rain fell on Boxing Day and I'm a little late in posting the photos :)

Sign of Spring

This is the first tree I've seen so far this spring with buds - I just had to take a picture!

Squiggly

So, I chose this week's theme for the photo contest (bokeh) only to learn that I couldn't really take the kind of shot I wanted to with the lenses that are currently part of my family (of lenses!); I had hoped to pick up the 50 mm 1.8 but it wasn't in stock so I set off to give it a try with my mother's newly acquired 60 mm macro - WHAT A LENS! I loved it and am happy that she has agreed to let me borrow it for a few more days! As you know, my parents live out in the sticks so I wandered around for over an hour outside in the cold this afternoon, just taking shots of anything, everything, and nothing! Here are a couple of shots I took....there will be more to follow...I'm going to make this photo expedition last ALL week :)
In the first, the only editing I did was to crop it a bit and increase the contrast somewhat; all that's in focus is the squiggly little branch.

In this one, I processed it a little differently (same as above in addition to using the 'cross process' function in picnik) and I'm really liking how it turned out; notice that only a teeny tiny portion of the branch in the bottom right corner is in focus - like I said, I had so much fun playing with this lens and I'm a big fan of anything 'abstract' and I feel like these shots fit into that category!

May Flowers (almost)

I would have used "Steel Magnolias" as my title as it's my all-time favourite movie but I recall that Jenn used that one once before so I didn't want to steal it :)
I saw some magnolia trees in bloom the other day but it was raining and I was far too wrapped up in getting ready for my exam so I didn't stop to take any photos. I took the day off today and ran a bajillion errands and found some time to photograph my favourite spring blooms. When Brannon and I find 'our house', the first thing I'm going to do is plant a magnolia tree!

Sprout!

It's an amazing day today - twenty degrees and sunny! I came across some plants that have sprung up in the last few days so I took some pictures (and got caught by their owner!). Notice though, that there is still snow on the ground....will it ever go away?!?!

It's not flowers in bloom.... :)

It's been a while since I posted any 'snow' pics and since it's snowing again.....

Keep Away

Don't get too close...these look pretty sharp!

Icicle or twigcicle??

I'm always amazed when I come across blades of grass or twigs that are supporting ice that's obviously so much heavier than they are!

Let it Snow...Let it Snow...Let it Snow...

Those of us who reside in Ottawa woke up this morning to our first real blast of snow of the season. In hopes of finding some interesting, yet undisturbed, scenes this morning, I got ready for work as quickly as I possibly could and ran around outside for a few minutes before heading off for the day. Here is what I came up with.

The snow seems to have wrapped itself around this twig; I thought it looked neat!

The neighbourhood cats were up and out way earlier than I was today!

In the summer this holds a potted plant outside on the balcony; today it just seemed to attract the snow!

Blankets of snow....

The snow melted before it could really cover anything but apparently we're in for lots more tomorrow.

Twiggy

I've never been fond of losing the daylight so early at this time of year but I don't think I have ever been more aware of it than I was today. On my way home from the lab I was itching to get out and take some photos because

1) it was a gorgeous day;

2) I wasn't so thrilled with what I was able to produce last night in the rain (rain + darkness = icky, yucky, messy photographs).

I desperately had to stop by the store to get a few things for dinner and when I went in the store the sun was still shining brilliantly (it was early, only 4:15 pm). When I came out no more than 10 minutes later it was almost dark. MEH.
So, today you get photos of twigs; not exciting but not bad considering what I had to work with.

At first glance, this isn't so interesting but I liked the way the sun looked as it set and how it seemed to "light up" the twig. Upon closer inspection this is what I saw - it's fuzzy (see below). In a brief attempt to figure out why a twig would be fuzzy I did some digging to learn only that this is a winter twig (who knew twigs had levels of classification?!?!?) - I still don't know why it's fuzzy but I assume it has to do with either variety or age.

Lastly, as I mentioned it rained last night which also prevented any productive camera play but I did manage to run outside and catch this drip from a twig in the courtyard.