I am alive!!!! Yep, just a brief interlude of quiet time on the blog and, with great apologies, lots of non-comments on all your blogs. I will try to catch up but may miss quite a few.
As far as ice goes, this is a few years old. Nothing like it to be seen in these parts since a while back. Maybe last Saturday when it was 15 below zero but I no longer go out when it is that cold. Zero would be alright, but 15 below and with strong winds was a bit much for this geezer growing soft. I just stayed curled up with Murphy and caught some extra zzzzz’s
So to the business at hand…here is this bit of cool ice tapers that I found hanging from a branch a few years back along the shore of Quabbin Reservoir.
Looks pretty cold doesn’t it? 🙂
I’ll try to get out tomorrow, but it is going to be around 40 as a low tonight, so no ice…maybe it’s time to find some artful mud.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
The reflections are great! Beautiful.
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Thanks, Karen!
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Good news indeed to hear you are alive! Although Facebook had left the impression you were still going strong.
Lovely icicle formations. Hope tomorrow’s venture outside will be enjoyable and productive.
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Thanks, Rod. Yeah, for those who use FB my existence is apparent. 🙂 Maybe too apparent, hence my poor use of my time. I am trying to catch up and not skip many posts.
Not much luck with the ventures…all our snow and ice is disappeared and it is now frozen muck season. Hoping for better this weekend.
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Really unusual. Eeerie finger like projections. Was this a Hallowen production?
Very nice black and white. Makes it even more “spooky.”
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Thank you, Yvonne. The color version really offers no more in the way of interest value so monochrome eliminates that distraction as well as add some spookiness. This was found in March so a bit late for Halloween but it does look a bit like the fingers of death, doesn’t it? 🙂
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I consider this scene rather warm after the past week. 🙂
Really nice.
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Thanks, Mark. Yeah, you have had a colder time of it. We just had a few days of real cold before the thaw occurred.
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It looks alive. Are you sure it’s only ice? Welcome back to the land of 0+ or 32+ in old money. We are heading the other way. It was a bone chilling 17C today.
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Good observation, Andrew. It could be “Thing” iced over, couldn’t it? 🙂
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I keep seeing different options on what it could represent, other than an icicle of strange design of course. 🙂 Cool!! xPenx
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Hi Lady P. It is very nice to see you active again. One person saw a nose represented…maybe Jimmy Durante’s schnozzola. 🙂 It is great for the imagination to try to find representations in nature.
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Steve, I’ve just realised where I got the inspiration for my latest Poem, (gonna post is next) many thanks for stirring my imagination. xxx
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Stunning photo, it’s almost surreal. I’m so glad you are back, I’ve missed you. Not sure I could cope with that degree of freezing’ness – You are very brave going out at all in that weather. Keep warm 😀
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Aw, thanks, Lottie. It is nice to be missed but, of course…we will always have FB. 🙂 I am not a fan of the cold, but it provides some awesome design. Check out these window frost images from Karen McRae http://drawandshoot.me/2014/01/11/winter-garden/#comment-18557
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WOW!!! Those are incredible! I took me about an hour to scroll down through all the comments! The cold you are dealing with is exceptional though, I don’t think many people can deal with it, you really need the right kit, clothes etc. I’m whinging about the weather today and it’s +6!!
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If you have a moment, you should look at some of Karen’s other posts. She is quite artistic with her creations. 🙂
I remember seeing frost like that years ago, but with our insulated windows and double pane glass we don’t get frost. Just thick cakey ice at the bottom of the window should we leave the drapes closed. And frozen pupkus. 😉
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Great black and white treatment. Definitely the way to go. Good isolation too!
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Thank you, James. Probably a view of Quabbin most don’t consider. It’s a large landscape with some really neat intimate views as you know. I hope we get a few more opportunities for winter imagery there.
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My imagination is active this morning, and I see two fantastical animals: the one at the left stands parallel to the picture plane and nuzzles the one at the right, which faces forward and has a bulbous nose.
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Abstracts are all about multiple interpretations, Steve. Thanks for having a few.
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It is a great intimate ice shot and I like it as much as your others that you have posted on FB. Great monochrome work, too!
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Thanks, Sandra. 🙂
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This is very nice (although I had to go find a sweater after I looked at it); thanks for sending me over here to see it. Also: did you find any artful mud?
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Ha. That’s still on the to do list, Melinda. Let me know when it gets warmish in July down there and I’ll share some more ice to help. Thanks.
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Yes, I will let you know. Although we probably don’t have to wait all the way until July: it’s supposed to be 96 degrees here on Monday…
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Just a little warm for Texas. Still burning wood here.
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If the wood’s burning here, it may be from spontaneous combustion due to excessive heat.
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Or one of those lightning bolts I dodged in my only time flying as we headed for Dallas.
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Dallas has some pretty sketchy weather. One of my co-workers was stuck at the airport all night last spring, when tornados were on the ground just a few miles from the airport.
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Better on the ground than in the air. We are fortunate to only get tornadoes rarely. One did tear up Springfield, MA pretty good a few years back but they don’t happen often, thankfully. We always feel so bad for folks who lose everything, not to overlook those who die.
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On May 11, it will be the 50th anniversary of a deadly tornado that hit Lubbock, and killed nearly 30 people. It is still called “the tornado” and the city’s history is divided by before and after. There were plans to (finally!) unveil a memorial park to the victims this year, but of course that’s had to be delayed.
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A sad memorial both for the memories and the reason for the delay.
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Yes, it is. There’s never a May 11 that passes that I don’t think about that night…
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I guess that’ll be this coming Monday. Does Lubbock have a gathering? I guess not this year but ordinarily? Maybe once the epidemic is under control the memorial will finally take its place.
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Well, obviously the big anniversary passed before I got around to a reply. There was going to be ceremony this year (usually there’s not), but that’s been delayed for one year. The Texas Tech campus dimmed their lights and rang a bell 26 times for each of the victims at the exact time the first tornado touched down, which was cool. Another thing that happened was that we were under severe weather advisories that evening, and they expired at 9:45 pm, or just a minute before the tornado touched down.
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Just when you think it’s safe to go out. Forecasting is a guessing game sometimes.
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Somehow forecasts for windy days are LOT more accurate than forecasts for rain. But I guess the odds favor wind…
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The odds sure do favor wind on a day I am planning on shooting flowers. I’d much rather some nice raindrops on the plants than a blur. We’ve had so much lately I am regretting never putting up a wind turbine.
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