Going Outside

The first day of the new year, T. wrote a post called How to Go Outside and it was lovely, the pictures were fantastic and I made a note to do the same.

It only took me two weeks of wishing for warmer weather, but I did it.

It was cold, 1 degree, but no wind. We had a light rime frost on every surface so I grabbed the camera.  It was marvelous, the walk and the playdate with a bored, housebound dog.

It was frustrating, though, trying to just see. I have the worst eyesight, progressive bifocal lenses that sometimes make things worse, and permanent blurring in one eye from a cataract which will need repair one day. My camera wouldn't zoom on autofocus, so I fought with it, and messed with the functions and fretted that the pictures would suck. They looked pretty blurry to me. Turns out they didn't suck, once I got them on screen so I could see them better. Some were pretty magical.

Here's what Tucker and I saw on our romp around the yard.

So much gray and white, but peeks of sun too.

Bet you can't guess what this is....

 It's salt runoff from slush that fell off my car in the garage. Looks like a lunar landscape to me.

It was one of those frosts that followed a light fluffy snowfall where everything reflected light like diamonds. So hard to capture, but etched permanently in my memory.

I couldn't see these crystals on the closeups until I downloaded the picture, and these were the ones that looked out of focus on my display. What a surprise. 

 The leaf portraits were also a surprise - impaled with ninja starflakes.

This one is my favorite. I was happy thinking about the buds, dormant under the frost, knowing that they would be next years flowers and leaves, not knowing they were balancing such a delicate bouquet of snow crystals on their tip.

Another surprise, big enough to see with my own eyes - a bird nest I did not know was hiding there.

And my little girl with basket statue, she looks frozen to death, but so peaceful.

Also a surprise were the snowflakes on the end of every seed on the coneflowers. Magical.

Tucker had the best time. We haven't played in the yard in weeks.

Eating snow is a favorite activity. Or he's pretending to be an ostrich.

Cleanup was not a breeze -this was the clumping snow. Those snowballs on the towel were between his food pads. Must have hurt to walk on.

It was a three dog towel day, but a good one.

Stay warm...