Relaxation!!

if only we could all relax like Pat!

loaded with clouds

Quite a few days have passed since the sky was loaded with clouds at sunrise. I have gotten quite lazy and used to just glancing out the window to check the light and move about my indoor life.

This morning however, from my kitchen window a hint of brilliant color caught my breath and I hurried up to Top of the World Park. The air was warm with a whisper of spring. Too many clothes between my skin and the early morning warmth; now is the time to shed my winter legs. I left my gloves behind on the front steps, free to enjoy the caress of the morning air.

Guardian of the Suburbs

looking for balance today

Work could overwhelm me but letting that happen will not help me get the work done.
I have mostly been taking a few photos each day around or close to the house. This morning I jogged 1 mile around the track and took a few photos as I saw them. I ‘met’ the dog that spontaneously posed in my tree photo last week. It is so easy to see beauty wherever you are and balance seems to come naturally if you give it a chance.

down on the lake

Winter had returned with a vengeance (record breaking -13ºF) but it has also rewarded us with an out-and-out riot of texture on the once again frozen lake surface. Slippery and crunchy both, I gingerly make my way down to the water’s edge to view this feast from a goose’s perspective. Even better would be to lie on my belly on the ice, but I am not quite that adventurous!Delighting at the myriad crystal patterns, my view is most distorted by the ice that has formed on my own glasses.

Welcome to my view of the world!

Now again with glasses off!

(More photos)

Can you see minus 10?

I think you can. There is haziness and a quiet that descends and rises from this kind of cold. If you can manage to be safe, it is worth the visit. Up early on a Saturday morning, few people out, even in their cars. I was the first and only person out at Top of the World Park. Even my canine friends were safely inside somewhere. The only tracks (and there were quite a few) were from the wild creatures that make Green Mountain their home. Overnight, the couple of inches of brittle powder disappeared from the road and sidewalk. Where did it go – wind? Sublimation? Who knows but it left a light blanket of sparkling white, even a layer of crystals on the trees, too fragile to photograph, there for my eyes-only. More photos

On the outside looking out

sunrise buddy

CAR WASH!

(As you read this I recommend you sing Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell)
I live in a suburb of Denver that was originally developed back in the early 1970’s. Lately, the only development has been infill. One large piece of undeveloped land near me is undergoing development. This piece of land has been open for quite some time. A local who was born and raised here told me there used to be a golf driving range on the property and sure enough, if you looked you could see some remnants of the light poles. But now we have a new auto parts store, a Sonic Drive-In, and soon we will have a Walgreens and the new CAR WASH. This is the biggest, gaudiest car wash I have ever seen. It seems so overdone. I think someone who is WAY too into car washes designed it, someone who needs to get out more.

You can get in your car and drive 1 to 4 minutes (or walk!) and get to another one of any of these kinds of businesses. So this seems completely unnecessary. Oh well, nobody asked me.

full moon overlooking Denver skyline

Springtime in the Rockies - Part 2

springtime in the Rockies

Is the captivating beauty of this sunrise a harbinger of the coming weather story? It is supposed to reach a high temperature of around 60º F today. Tomorrow a high of around 25º F with a 60% chance of rain or snow is predicted. Who knows what will really happen?

sunrise at Addenbrook

pursuing photography
I encountered Spring
no more ice on the lake
like there was
just 12 days ago

variations on a theme

The day ended much the same as it began.

hypersonic!

When I got up to Top of the World Park this morning, it was late again. The sky was already lighter than I prefer. There was a huge tubular shaped cloud streaking across the sky. It was white in color and I reminded myself that it would look quite spectacular if the lighting caught it just right. I was fiddling with my camera for a couple minutes when I looked back up, the cloud was bright pink. Like looking at a fast motion video, it was quickly changing back to white. I ran across the field (my exercise for the day!) to get into a position to capture the scene. Much of the pink was already faded in the seconds that it took me to set up and shoot. On my way back home, I was thinking – new digital SLR camera with wide angle lens!

my prediction

We here in Colorado never listen to that rodent Phil. Our weather from now until summer will be impossibly cold, impossibly windy, impossibly warm, just as it always is: impossibly beautiful.

dancing trees

It was hardly a morning to see details. The wind was so ferocious that I could barely keep my eyes open. With the roar of a freight train and my eyes full of grit I struggled to hold the camera still. Dancing trees were what caught my attention.
Avoiding flying debris, I did manage to notice that yesterday’s stoop shingles had blown away except for two. How many details like that do we miss in life? Full of thanks, I retreat to the warmth and comfort of my home.

do you see the shingles?

I almost decided to sleep through this morning’s sunrise. But just look at what I saw the second I walked out my front door. I couldn’t resist.

Out later than I like, I got to see waning colors, at first intense then transitioning to subtle.

New details never noticed before in the dark: ramshackle stoop of the equipment shed seen in so many of my sunrise photos.

My mind reels from all of these details.

self portrait #?

Darn, one day late for a photo challenge contest. I was supposed to take and submit the photo of my shadow on Groundhog Day. The good news is that I saw my shadow today as well as yesterday! The bad news is that it is irrelevant! For some silly reason, I like to take these ‘self portraits’. I have a whole file devoted them.
Maybe some day I will grow up – I hope not!

passage

WINDY
Storm blowing in
Chance of rain and snow later

Sunrise from the shelter of the trees

What a man!

I needed a dose of Mother Nature to counteract the sad truth of Bush and the State of our Union. His viewpoint and mine could not be more divergent. The truth is that we need to get these heartless, soulless butchers out of our government.

Did you see that Cindy Sheehan was arrested? Way to go, Bush. Crush your opponents. Arrest mothers of fallen soldiers.

What a man!