Icy Mistress

Dreary day, set the B/W on instead.

This is only part of the Big pine that is at the end of my driveway.

It's also just after xmas this year, and everything is laden with ice from the freezing rain we had on Boxing Day.

I could wink out that power line, but didn't want to fuss with it. Only resized it to post.

Taken from almost kneeling on the road.

Mother Pine, the Icy Giant

She (with respect) is a huge pine tree right at my driveway. You can see the size, as that is my husband standing there on the road looking up.

Big, with a capital B!

Down the line

is a wire fence, covered in ice, and very pretty for it too.

Icy Tips

A branch, from the spruce tree right beside the stairs to my house.

Reminds me of a really big, weird spider.

hehehehe

Icy Drips

A grape vine, I think, coated, but not fully, in ice.

It froze in droplets along the runner. Pretty cool!

Touch the Crown

When we cut open the woods to build our house here 10 yrs ago, there were 6 small white birches, leaning heavily curved from the previous winter's ice storm (1998 Ice Storm).

They straightened up nicely and grew heavenward.

Boxing Day, ice rain greeted the day and kept up, on and off, to coat everything, including these same birch tree's, which have grown considerably.

Today, I could reach its crown, just by reaching my hands up.

Pic's I got, of many things icy.

What a beautiful day.

Ice Berries

Hawthorn I think, and wild grape vines. Damn things grow over everything in site, always cutting them back each year.

But we don't eliminate them, cause the wild birds love to eat them! (sour....ewww)

Friendly little....

bugger isn't it?? He hung around for at least 10 or 15 mins, prob drunk on soda pop or something! lol

We went down to Merrickville this day early in August. Sat in the park, visited with a friend from out west. Watched boats go thru the lock system there (its a swing bridge) and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Not sure what kind this is, but he was sure pretty up close.

Not that long ago

These were still without white.

I saw them one day coming home (they are actually right behind my house, but the perspective is from the road here) with a gorgeous sunset behind them shining up thru the leaves!!!!

and the camera, was...um...not with me....(groan)

I snapped this within a few days, but the sunset wasn't cooperating the same way. Still a pretty sight, and will put it on my calendar for next fall.

(and Elphin, which I missed getting out to this year too)

Sunset one day

With a tiny sliver moon.

Pulled over and layed out the pod on the truck hood. Freezing cold, but took my time.

Got several shots, but the moon was sinking fast.

Then, finally, home to warm up and eat supper.

On Guard for Thee

One of the Sea Cadets standing at frozen attention all thru the entire ceremony.

The BIG Gun

They fire off 2 shots from this beauty during the ceremony.

Wow loud too!

Up....real close and personal

with the business section of a BIG gun on Rememberance Day in Almonte.

Only regret I have is not getting the words in focus first, then composing the shot but at least I got the shot!

up the barrel of a gun? lol

Next time

I see something about self portraits in unique ways, this one will come to mind for me.

Thanks Mandy!

and most especially, ty for not knocking me into the ... um...'mud' in the barnyard.

lol

I love you too, and I was out of carrots at that point..

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet

eating her curds and whey

when along came a spider

who sat down beside her

and frightened Miss Muffet away!

Thanks Andy, yes, I know...it's a rock.

Too bad you didn't see the gorgeous beauty on the side, like I did!

One quiet wet night

The rain, on my window, and in the side view mirror of my truck.

Tried to get the mirror in focus.

not sure about this shot, I like, but...

Leroy, one of the barn 'People'

yep, he's a llama...lol

careful, they can spit too!

End of Day...

Sun fled fast the first night we were there...but even thou it tipped past the tree's and refused to shine its golden light on the scene, it did take a moment as it edged the horizon to lace the sky in lovely tips of colour....deepened in reflections too.
Man, lucky to live there all the time!

Down by the Bay....

not sure if watermelons grow here or not, but it's the bay our friends live on at Mississippi Lake about 15 min's from our house.

Jade in Sunset

After being a busy girl all day exploring, and some lake dabbling, our little Jack Russell pauses (ya, they do stop now and then) to look out over the water. Hey Jade, whatcha looking at?

MMMMMMM Milkweeeeeeddddd!

My contribution to the 'fluff' gallery this year.

Walked down the road tonight to get a shot of the fluffies on the ground, kinda randomly laying there (and it's gonna rain tomorrow)...

and of course had to try a few 'up close and personal' ones too

Summer Fun w Friends....

Isn't discovery grand??

How to paddle a canoe...on the fly

How to catch fish....on the fly

How to paddle ever so silently that you CAN catch a fish....

hehehehe

and they did!

Copper

This one is from some shots last year. I posted the deeply coloured one, where it shot purple and blue... I don't think I posted the original, here it is.

The View from Here

From at the cottage, looking out at the water....

At the Lake

Same Lake, same day. See below.

Serenity..thy name is....

Thanksgiving at the cottage. Just outside Notre Dame de la Solette outside of Buckingham, Quebec. About 1.5 hr drive from home, thru downtown Ottawa and out the other side for a bit....

The shore is flat and straight. This is a series of shots stitched together to make a panorama.

Now, I see it's flaws, but OMG its so pretty!

Can I even hope to do it justice here? Shrunk it down to manageable size of 800 pixels wide...but ouch, 10% of what it was....just over 9000 when stitched.

Let me know if you wanna see it bigger...

Busy Bee

and you thought you had a tough job???!!

Riot??

Who'd have thought construction could be this much fun...!?!

Red Barn

Tucked away over the hill just a bit. The barley field in front. Very close to my home.

Barley

Still fresh green, earlier this season.

For tonight...

That's it, that's all...several new shots below. Random things that I've meant to sit down and play with on the comp and get set up here.
Hope you like.
I'm off to play elsewhere!! hehehehe
cheers
J

Finding it Tough Getting around somedays???

Try being a squishy little snail, working his way over the gravel of my drive way.

ouch!

and fyi, ya, i'm practically laying on the ground to get this shot..... ew... damp....

Coffee anyone???

Well, chickory.....

one of the beautiful wild flowers that dot our landscape in summer.

Almonte, Old Post Office

on lunch one day, snapped a few of this great building just up the street from work.

I see it every day. And often, I see folks pointing thier camera's at it too. Wondered if maybe it was time to take a few myself. lol

Sometimes we're blind to the beauty around us because it's there every day.

Awwwwwwstin Healey......

Poor old thing. Austin Healey 3000 MK II according to the front plate.
My dad's....under shelter in the barn.
Needs some lovin...big time!

Fall already???

No, just a few fallen leaves from the trees in mid summer. Happens all the time. Was testing out my tiny new tripod...how close can I get??

Love the veins and shapes you can see in this one.

Fireworks, CP style. From the bridge

A couple of my fav shots from the night.

Lonesome Dove

A young mourning dove, settled down on one of our patio chairs.

this close up, isn't due to a cool and funky fantastic lens (those who know me, know I've only got the one on the wee camera I use)

I was sitting (after carefully snapping and stepping one step at a time, while gazing in the other direction, so as not to appear as a snake staring at the bird - I took about 30 shots on the way in close) in the chair next to it, and when I stretched out my arm, I almost had to put the camera on macro, I was so close. maybe 2 ft away? It was a bit nervous as I moved in, but I took my time, and it stayed put. Sometimes patiences really does pay off! lol

Canada Day in Carleton Place, Dusk

Setting up on the bridge again for fireworks, the falling light caught my attention.

This is the town hall in Carleton Place, taken from the north end of the bridge.

I'll be back to get a better shot. I want the full trio of baskets of flowers and less traffic, but I'll have to stand in the street to get it. lol.

That is, without the pole blocking the town hall.

Took a few later in the evening too, not as nice. You lose the top of the tower in the darkness.

Hope you like.

PARTYQ!!!

Ok, so my husband is a welder. Means he 'stitches' (welds) metal together...and tends to be quite creative. This gorgeous offering, made up specifically for a party weekend we attended, is recycled from an ex 60 gallon hot water tank. Recycle to the Max!! Old bbq grills make up the internal cooking surface (you know, those old bbq's folks throw out? ya, from them), a lower base inside is set for holding charcoal. This was made as a tailgate/tabletop model (he plans to add legs to it for options). It fills the tailgait of our full size pick up truck.

It's 864 sq inches of cooking surface. We fired it up on his birthday weekend to test run it. Takes and hour to heat up as we expected. Heat was abt 300 on the ends and 600 in the center (we did have the coals mostly in the center). Heat lasted abt 3 hrs (we were still roasting marshmallows on it as it cooled). So we had variable heat cooking surface too.

This shot is from the next party weekend, shows how much food was already on the grill and the room still to go if wanted. Dave was the cook ( thanks much to the chef...you rock in so many more ways too my friend!!!)

And....we fired it back up in the am too, and threw the griddles on the grill's so we could cook pancakes for everyone! that worked like a charm too.

Summer just got a loooooot better!....bring it on baby...!

mmmmmm ya

So I'm Back...

So, our net has been down for 3 weeks.
I'm so behind in all my posting now....time to get caught up.
not all tonight of course, but a few are below.

Pathway

Harsh, but I liked the end result.

Riot...of Colours

A close up, sort of... of a mosaic inside one of the buildings at Carleton University.

Turn Left

Was after some abstract stuff...of which I've never shot any before...

am I even close??

Carleton Tower

My daughter was attending University for a week early May.

I'm revisiting these pics for the Urban idea...I was stranded there a few hours with only my camera as company.

I liked this one.

Tyler....1 yr

OK, so it's been ages since I posted anything....
Where does the time go? I'm not sure. Frankly I've got 2 gb of cards full, which isn't like me. I take, I download, I go thru, and post. So, got LOTS and LOTS to go thru still. This one is from our friend's little guy. His first outing without his parents, to a birthday party at another friend's house. He did great, and was a blast to have about! At 1 yr old, he's busy and curious and a delight. And....interested in the camera that kept snapping pic's of him! heheheheh

We're off to his 1 yr Birthday Party tomorrow afternoon. I'm printing this one and framing and gifting it for them.
Looking forward to getting back at my photography. I miss it.
AND...jealous...my dear dear friend has a new BIG camera....he's in 7th Heaven!!!....and going on a 'rock'in trip this summer too....enjoy my dear!
(spare an old camera??? ..... heheheheeh) Love ya!

My Brother~!

Here's James, all blue!

Tulips...

only red...gotta love this colour select thingy!!!

James took it, I suggested the composition etc.... He was playing with mum's camera as much as me...

George

and a host of lovely golden daffodils.

This is George, a blue spruce, planted in memory of my Opa from 2004.

Tiny bit o Blue

teddy... chair... afghan... nuff said... lol

Blue...

wow....centered in on one very blue anthology book in my parents bookcases, and there's a number of other's that have the same blue too, but not too many....