Photographing Icy Branches

Last night I remembered some wintry pictures that I took last January. I did not post them at the time because they were inside a film camera and not developed until Spring. Then I had the roll scanned and put on CD at Walmart but the images were out of season so I stuck the CD in a drawer.

Now it's winter again and icy cold, so the pictures seem appropriate to share. I got the CD out last night and brightened the images a bit (after all, these were cheap scans) before I went to bed. Tonight I got ready to post them and I checked to see what day I took them. It was exactly a year ago: January 7, 2009.

I took these pictures in Winchester, Virginia. Normally I would not have made the one-hour drive there on an icy day, but I had a medical test scheduled that I did not want to postpone. (See my post for that day if you're curious.)

The test took all morning and I was anxious to get some lunch, but from the parking lot I could see that the trees were covered with glistening ice. There are a couple of landscaped duck ponds at the entrance to the hospital complex, and I felt that they were worth photographing even though a misty cold rain was still drizzling down.

Normally I carry a camera when I drive through the Shenandoah Valley because I often see a pretty landscape. But on this particular day I had left the house before daylight with cold rain falling, and I was worried about icy roads and staying alert, rather than photo ops. However, I did have a disposable camera in a compartment of my snack bag, stashed there for times like this.

I only used about half the roll of film before retreating to the warmth of my car, where I stuck the camera back in its compartment and forgot about it, concerned with finding lunch and making it back to Woodstock for a physical therapy appointment. Eventually I finished off the film in May and got it processed.  I also purchased another cheap disposable camera and put it in the snack bag.

Icy Trees Beside A Pond

Pond at Winchester Medical Center

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Taken A Year Ago

World Traveler

Here's a photo of my daughter Marie. I took the picture in her home office almost ten years ago.

Marie likes to travel and has been sharing her adventures online for over a decade. You can still view her 2001 trip around the world.  The African portion of that trip became a book, Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik which is available on Amazon and in many bookstores.

Now she's off on another adventure. Take a look at her latest tour at mariejavins.blogspot.com.

Quick Access to My Personal Top Sites

One of the neatest things about the Safari browser on Mac is this feature: When I open a new window (from the File menu), it displays "Top Sites." These are sites that I have been going to recently, like this blog and Facebook. Each site is represented by a miniature screen image. I can select one and go right to the site.

Looks like my other top sites include ebay, AOL, Pets on Care2, Sitemeter, igive, Goodsearch, Postlets, Craigslist, and Marie's blog.

Icy Lake, Late in the Day

View at Shenandoah River Lakes

We went by the lake house yesterday to check on it and clean up the mud that was tracked in by feet that had walked around the yard. Everyone walks around in the yard, of course, even when rain or snow have left it wet. That's because everyone is drawn to look at the lake.

I took these pictures before we left.

Cocker Spaniel Ears

Benny's ears have finally improved. He suffered ear infections since July, especially in his right ear. We took him to the vet a number of times, and I faithfully cleaned his ears and administered three different topical medications. We were treating him for both bacterial infection and yeast.

I don't know exactly what did the trick but after his ear got noticeably worse and Dr. Vick said we may have to consider surgical removal of the ear canal (which would leave him deaf in that ear), I decided to try every trick I could come up with including:

• Continue ear cleaning and prescribed medication twice daily, even though it had failed to work for five months. It does lessen the itchiness.
• Avoid likely food allergens. He was already on a limited ingredient diet because regular dog food makes him itch. I decided to be more selected in his treats - this meant no more dried chicken strips. 
• I fed him occasional scoops of plain yogurt to add beneficial bacteria to his diet.
• Changed his water supply to Shenandoah Spring Water, which I already had on hand in 3-gallon bottles. My reasoning here is that our tap water might possibly be contaminated with pseudomonas (previously mentioned in a July post) which is known to cause canine ear infections. And even with a narrow bowl, cockers get their long ears damp while drinking.
• I closed the heat vent that Ben likes to lie on. This was Frank's suggestion and although I was skeptical, the vet said that the extra heat could encourage yeast to grow. 
• I sterilized his drinking bowl and added a few drops of colloidal silver to his drinking water from time to time. It's antibacterial and does not seem to cause yeast like many prescription antibiotics. 

I wish I could tell you which item did the trick, but the infection appears to be gone. Hooray for Ben!

Deer in Our Yard

A group of deer visits our yard just about every day. You can see their well-worn paths in the woods. Sometimes Benny stares at them and they stare back for a minute before walking off. Yesterday I snapped this picture of one from the steps beside the garage.

The light was dim and the deer were in motion, so I decided to tweak the contrast in Photoshop, starting with a poster edge filter.

It's not legal in Virginia to put out food for them in the winter, but they find their own food by eating our shrubbery and even bird seed.

Our View this Morning

Moon Over Great North Mountain

Remnants of snow add emphasis to the rugged terrain of Great North Mountain, seen from the Virginia side.

It's Cold Outside!

Temperatures today were pretty much in the teens here on the mountain, although they reached the twenties in the Shenandoah Valley. We had brisk winds too so I didn't spend much time outside. The cold doesn't keep the skiers indoors; the slopes were busy when I drove past them this morning.

Personally, I'm looking forward to spring.

New Years Resolutions

I decided a few years ago that New Year Resolutions should be based on deserving a good life rather than inflicting some sort of arduous improvement on myself. So while I probably should lose 20 pounds, I'm not going to resolve to do so -- it would probably cause osteoporosis anyway!

I jotted down some resolutions for 2010. Since a specific action makes an idea more likely to be done, I included something specific for each goal. One other thing I learned long ago about goal-setting is that three items are more likely to be remembered than a higher number.

1. Have more fun! Make a list of enjoyable things to do in winter and post it. And play with the dogs!
2. Communicate better with spouse. Practice speaking in his direction… he cannot hear you when your head is turned (a common problem in the car, for instance).
3. Socialize more. Reach out to someone.

That last item may be the hardest for me. I am naturally a bit reserved.

P.S. The illustration is a combination of a WeatherPixie graphic and a Wordle that I made last night, wishing everyone a good year.

Reflection for the New Year

Made with Wordle.net and a photo of Narrow Passage Creek combined in Photoshop

Greetings

Wishing Everyone a Happy New Year!

I used this picture as my Christmas card some years back  when I lived on Taft Avenue in Alexandria. I printed the images in the darkroom at NVCC as I was taking a B&W photography course at the time.

As you can see, we had a lot of snow at the time and it was still coming down. Today we had about two inches of snow, which made a pretty frosting on top of the snow that was left over from the last snowstorm.

Geese, Lake, and Signal Knob

Another view seen from our "lake house" near Strasburg. In the distance is Signal Knob at the north end of the Massanutten Range.

Railroad Crossing in the Snow

Warren County, Virginia

When we stopped at the entrance to Shenandoah River Lakes to take some pictures of the icy lake, I decided to walk over to Richardson Road and take a few photographs of the railroad crossing.  This is the Strasburg to Front Royal stretch of tracks, and obviously the train doesn't run very often since the tracks were still covered with snow four days after the snow storm.

This was once part of the RF&P Railroad, which was bought by CSX in 1991. I remember when we lived near Alexandria's railroad station back in the 60's, we had several neighbors who worked for RF&P. Some were from Strasburg and occasionally traveled back there on the train, probably over this section of track.

Across the Snowy Lake

Waterlick, Virginia

Lake House in the Snow

Above: Seen from Southern Drive

Below: Seen from Back Yard

Near Waterlick, Virginia

Happy Birthday to Frank

Geese on Ice

Frank took this photo on Tuesday at Shenandoah River Lakes in Warren County.

Snow Finally Disappearing

We've had a couple of warmer days and our snow is finally melting. Instead of the 18" deep covering of everything, we have about 5 inches now, and it is melting down to nothing in some spots.

This picture is from the 24th when the snow and ice were still a problem. We were trying to get my car up the hill that morning, having left it the night before down by Straton Drive. I saw the plow truck approaching and waved at him. The driver stopped and helped us de-ice our windshield and then put some more salt on the road. He said it wouldn't help much until the temperature went up. Fortunately the temperature rose to about 38 degrees (F) in the afternoon so enough ice melted that we able to easily drive the car home.

Amazon Affiliate Links Made Easier

Blogger and Amazon have gotten together and made it easier to link to Amazon products. Formerly if I wrote about a book, for instance, I would find it on Amazon, use my Associate's toolbar to find the link page, copy the code and paste it into Blogger as HTML.

Now I can highlight relevant text as I type a blog entry and get a link more quickly. For example, if I am writing about the Shenandoah Valley's history,  I can highlight those words and see a box underneath the text entry area with items to select such as Maps illustrating Campaign of Gen. T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 1862 (28" x 36" reprint).  As these appear, I click the Link button and the item is automatically inserted in my blog. Or I can click the Image button and a DVD on Historic Hotels: The Wayside Innand a picture of the item is inserted. Also, some formatting choices show up so that I can resize the image and move it to the right or left side. Pretty cool!

Waste Less, Get Free Stuff!

Recycling Rewarded:

• Trade in your old electronics for an Amazon gift card. Green Earth Exchange will pay for shipping.
• Trade in used textbooks for an Amazon gift card. Amazon pays for shipping.

The Core of Bryce Resort

Core: "The center of a thing" or "A small group of indispensable things..."
In this picture we see the ski lodge with the slopes behind it. In the foreground is Stony Creek.

Tonight we took Allison to dinner at the restaurant which is just to the left of what you see here. The slopes were lighted and skiers were still enjoying themselves.

Hope Your Christmas Was Lovely!

Okay, I admit to Photoshopping the picture above. I pasted the cardinal in from a different shot taken a few minutes later, and I deepened the colors just a bit.
The video is exactly as seen though. I took it from our living room on December 25 in the morning.

We had a nice Christmas day. Marie was here in the morning and tonight Allison and Dave stopped by.

View of Library in the Snow

Basye, Virginia

This is our community library and airport building. I took the picture on Monday. The entrance should be pretty much clear of snow now. The library has a book sale scheduled for tomorrow (12/26/2009).

They like to get donations of books to sell. Visitors to the resort often stop by to use the internet and buy some used books to read.

Smiles

Thanks to Jesse Mendez for this award graphic. He commented on my previous post that "smiles like those deserve a reward."

Blog: The Art of Jesse

The Day Before Christmas

The weather forecast for tomorrow includes icy rain in the morning, so Lynn declined my invitation to come for Christmas. I don't blame her because our mountain roads can become treacherous when icy.
So today Marie and I met her for lunch in Harrisonburg. Afterwards I was trying to take a picture of them in the parking lot and a woman offered to take a picture of the three of us. Here it is.

Our Road in the Snow

Our road has gotten a little clearer since I took this photo on Sunday. Unfortunately, an icy film covers it now. We went to the local diner for dinner tonight and couldn't drive back up this hill. My car just didn't get enough traction to crest a steep slope. We had to leave the car near the intersection and walk home. When I stepped out of the car, I almost fell on the ice. Slick!

View Looking Up the Driveway

Snow Blower

Our driveway was full of snow and too large to shovel. So I was happy to see the crew from Macanie Trucking show up on Sunday to clear it for us.

Here we see their guy using a professional-size snow blower. It's pretty impressive. Take a peek at the video below.

Making it Easy to Share Posts

Today I learned about the GetSocial toolbar which links to social sharing sites like Facebook and Twitter. I added this feature to a few of my most popular posts.

Surprisingly, my most popular post is on tea allergy. Apparently this allergy is more common than I thought. It is rarely tested for; my allergist included it in an extended set of skin tests after the standard group of skin tests failed to uncover the cause of my coughing at mealtimes.

Another popular post has a photo of historian and reenactor Rob Hodge. Hodge was made somewhat famous in an entertaining book by journalist Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. (Clicking on the book's title will take

you to a page about it on Amazon.com. If you buy the book, I get a small credit from Amazon.)

The other post on this blog that has been consistently popular is Make a Cartoon Portrait of Yourself, so I added the Get Social links there also.