Sunset & Ice

This afternoon was perfect for taking a walk around the lake.  Kris, K-9, Zephyr and I all enjoyed the sights, and sniffs!

 

 

  

Walking along the water's edge we saw many interesting ice formations.  Then we saw a beautiful sunset.

 

Colored Pencils & Lemons

 

Kris came over tonight and we played with Sam's light table and Kris' new extension tubes.  We put a tube on my 50mm along with the diopter.  Then we connected my camera with my computer to get an almost live view.  It worked really well.

 

 

The lemon photos were taken the same way as the pencils.  Not bad for a nifty fifty!

Martin Luther King Day

Kris and I went to Beatrice to visit Pam.  She took us to the Homestead National Monument which was really interesting.  It is actually on the site of the very first land that was acquired through the Homestead Act of 1862.  I'm looking forward to going again and hiking around the property and learning more.

 

There's a fence on the property with lots of different types of barbed wire.

Then we went driving around the countryside and found this American Kestrel and another little guy that I can't identify.  I'm not real good at naming birds yet.

 

Saturday Morning Snowshoeing Sights

 

Ice fishermen on Holmes Lake.

  

 

 

 

Trail Grooming

I named the trails this afternoon as I was "grooming" them.  There's "Dam Hill", "Skunk Run 1" and "Skunk Run 2", the last 2 named after the skunk that I smell every time I snowshoe in that area.

Skunk Run 1 prior to grooming

 

Opened up both trails, I did!

Couchskiing?

OK, so I went to Holmes Lake to "groom" our snowshoe trails after the snow from the past week.  As I was heading back to the car I noticed these kids.  What a crack up!

First you push and/or pull your skicouch up the hill.

 

Once on top of the hill you discuss how to turn it around.

Load the team onto the skicouch.

Then take off!

Mommy, mommy there's a couch chasing me!

 

Cross the finish line in record time!  That's how it's done =).

Diopter & Play

I braved the cold and it wasn't so bad.  I actually warmed up re-shoveling the driveway and sidewalk.  Kris called from Devil's Thumb and asked if I had used the diopter she loaned me.  When we hung up, I put it on my 55-250 and played around.  Here's what I got.

 A star from a decoration Jordan made when he was in first grade in Switzerland

A leaf from my white poinsettia

This is me playing around trying to imitate the technique that William Neill uses in his book, "Impressions of Light".  The idea is to make the photo look more like a painting from the impressionist era.  

Snow Day Activities

Keeping busy at home during the snow days hasn't really been a problem.  I'm beginning to get lonely and would love to go out but the high today is only supposed to be 1!  I just might have to brave the cold anyhow.

 

New hats for the February trip to Devil's Thumb!

 

Pieced and quilted snowshoe bag.  I may do some design changes on this and add some tabs to the zipper pulls.

Thinking of Flowers on a Snowy Day

It's snowing like crazy outside, again.  LPS called school off last night and it didn't even start snowing until about 7 o'clock this morning.  That's almost unheard of.  Anyway, I had made some photo cards to give as gifts with some recent photos that I've taken and got to thinking that flower photos would make nice cards as well.  So, I started going through my photos from this summer which I took with my Canon point and shoot and thought I'd post some on my blog.

 A Rose and Blackeyed Susan from Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha

 

 

 

Wild flowers from Holmes Lake