Uncomfortably Numb

Brrrr! While the first snow of the year may be photogenic, more often than not, it arrives during some of the least favorable picture taking times of the year. This morning, I braved the elements and went looking for some nice images to share with my warmer and wiser friends and family.

The first place I stopped, I chatted briefly with a man who going cross country skiing and bad brought his dog out to play in the snow. They're in the upper right image heading off into the woods.

Next, I went downtown to see what was happening at the outdoor ice arena. With temperatures reported to be twelve degrees (that's twenty below freezing!), I didn't know what kind of crowd they'd have. There were a few cars parked in the area but the ice was being dressed by the zamboni. Evidently, they expected skaters ... and I think they were right! You can see the zamboni and the shelter house in the lower left portion of the lower right image. (Confusing?)

Finally, I headed down by the river and got a nice shot of the flow coming around a bend. It makes up the left edge of the image I posted. In the trees directly across the river from where I took this shot, I had seen six large brown lumps that could have been birds but they looked big enough to be raccoons, big raccoons. Before I got out of the car, I'd been able to line one of them up with a tree trunk in the background. As I had hoped, these were bald eagles! When I got out of the car, four of them took flight and cut some beautiful sweeping turns against the grey sky. As I pulled out the legs on the tripod, the remaining pair took off as well. Brown lumps when perched, they're impressive in flight. That was a real treat for me.

It's nice to be in from the cold now but it was nice to be out in the fresh snow this morning.