Photography (and stories), 3/30/14

I'm still way behind on sorting photos, and those I've gotten lately are not, by and large, good. Gonna give this a shot anyway!

Snow
It was a cold, wet winter, but despite what you may have heard on the national weather reports, we did NOT spend most of it buried in snow. In fact we only had five or six snows all season, and only one was significant (about 6 inches). The others were 3 inches or less. What made trouble on the roads (and multiple snow days) was that those snowfalls were followed by days much colder than normal, so it didn't just melt off again as it usually does here. Which of course adds up to plenty of chances to play in it! These photos are all mixed up, from several different snows.

SOMETHING was checking out the conditions overnight--rabbit? big bird? squirrel? Anyone?

Definitely birds here. This is right outside the big sliding glass door. When they couldn't find their usual bird seed, our winged piggies came up to the door and knocked for more. I'm not joking!

It wasn't a record low, but the 14 degrees we got one night in February was the lowest we've known in the two decades we've lived here. And as you can see, it had already crept to 17 by the time I figured out how to document it!

Now that's a cold ride.

Just about every snowfall started with graupel. The stingy, slippery little ice pellets sort of scare me, but the jonquils don't seem to mind.

This gritty snow wasn't much good for mashing into snowballs, but that doesn't mean we didn't try.

Another day, another snow. And this time, it's packable. Sculpture!

Yikes!

not a great shot--legions of snowmen closing in from our front yard

more of the snowman horde

The day before, this had been an enormous snowman of standard shape. The sun working on it sculpted it into something unique. Do you see what I do--the profile of a matronly pioneer woman, complete with apron and severe bun?

A Sweet Story
We generally only have cakes on birthdays, but I've noticed for some reason I've made more of them lately. I can be downright lame on the decorating, but they've all been really tasty! Again, no particular order.

Valentine's Day--chocolate pound cake with a little leftover fresh-strawberry frosting that was in the freezer. Frozen, buttercream frosting lasts practically forever!

Christmas--chocolate layer cake

T's birthday--chocolate sheet cake with peanut butter frosting. I forgot to buy a "1" candle, so that's last year's number plus an extra year stuck in the forehead.

banana custard--good recipe, but it would have been better without the caramel sauce. Noted for next time.

almond pound cake--with striped frosting from the freezer, left over from Boy 1's birthday

Some More Food
Girlie's preschool class has a snack each day. Parents are asked to brings foods related to whatever unit the teachers are doing in class. In fall, I got off easy. I got a week during the colors unit (orange, brown, and green) and the week surrounding Halloween ("P" and pumpkins). Done and done. This time around, it wasn't so simple. It was the nursery rhyme unit, but my week wasn't the easy ones like "Little Miss Muffet," "The Queen of Hearts," or "Little Jack Horner" (cottage cheese, tarts, and plums, right?). Searching online for ideas for my rhymes was no help whatsoever. I also picked the brain of my book club friend who ALWAYS themes our meeting munchies to whatever book we read, and even she was mostly stumped. Coming up with these was the toughest mental exercise I got during the entire month. So--pop quiz: Can you recite for each snack?

A Bona Fide Shoe Emergency
Plenty of women have regular "fashion crises." One second's glance at my wardrobe will reveal I'm not one of them. But I can now attest that an actual footwear disaster can occur.

It was sleeting when we picked up Boy 1 from school one afternoon, and the parking lot was awash in puddles from the last 48 hours of rain. We all came home with our shoes soaked through. As I've done many times before, I threw all our sneakers in the dryer along with a couple of old towels as soon as we got home. Ten minutes does the job.

Then things got busy with homework and supper, and I didn't get around to taking the sneakers out of the long-since shut off and cooled dryer until I was on my way out the door for a church meeting that night. All the kids' shoes were fine. Mine, on the other hand...

Right shoe: mostly okey dokey

Left shoe: oh, dear.

just a little uncomfortable, too

I remembered hearing the dryer shut off. It really was only 10 minutes of tumbling. I was shocked at the damage!

I was already late for the meeting and didn't bother changing, just pulled my nearest shoes--dress loafers--on over my sweat socks. I think I may have mentioned my fashion disability earlier. Anyway, knowing that a school field trip that would require LOTS of walking was on the next day's schedule (more on that below), I took myself directly from the end of that meeting to the shoe department of Kohl's for some new walkers.

I never thought I'd find myself, of all people, going out a) for some urgent shoe shopping, b) at 9:30pm, c) on the most miserably windy, mixed snow-rainy night of the month. I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, but it just goes to show. Something.

Field Trip
Our whole family joined Boy 1's class in a field trip to the aquarium! The class got what could only be described as a chaotic, frantic whirlwind tour. But when they were done and getting back on the buses to return to school, we signed him out from the class so our whole family could stay at the aquarium for the rest of the day. Once apart from the madness of traveling with the class, we all had a terrific time. We'll be talking about it for months, especially our favorite exhibits: the river otters, the sea turtles, the shark tank, and the ray touch tank.

We took hundreds of pictures, but only a few are any good. Entire exhibit areas are missing from these photos. I guess that's just the nature of photography in murky indoor lighting, surrounded by reflective surfaces, and subjects that are submerged and/or in motion. But photo quality notwithstanding, it isn't a trip we'll soon forget.

shark

HUGE tooth of a sperm whale

pufferfish

many species, all colorful

ray

river otter

Boy 1's class. Despite the pace of the trip, they enjoyed it. Where they're sitting is the viewing area that faces the big river otter exhibit. These aquarium animals are not trained, but otters still put on a mesmerizing show!

Boy 1 is doing the bird call interactive; Girlie and Boy 2 are building a bird body. That is a great blue heron sculpture (actual size) behind Girlie.

harbor seal

North Atlantic sturgeon

Wish I'd written down its name--a rare reptile closely related to the crocodile

no idea what kind of fish, but look at those colors!

Egyptian cobra

huge, graceful sea turtles

Smile!

In the hands-on area, Girlie excavates a horseshoe crab tail.

Boy 1 checks out the density of the crabs' tank sand.

Camera was just a hair too slow--Boy 2 was stroking a live whelk's shell.

That's it for now!

Fffffall leaves

Fall starts with f. So do many of the things I associate with fall yard work--which I love doing even though it can be fffffrustration, or by some measures, pure fffffolly.

For a small property, ours has many trees. Every variety drops its leaves in a different way. Crape myrtle goes early, but the leaves are small and unobtrusive--no clean-up required. Then the maples change color and you think they're going to fall, but they don't...not yet. The season has a sort of slow start, and for a while it just looks interesting to have those few splashes of unexpected color and texture.

But I still spend an early fall weekend raking the front yard. It doesn't take many fallen leaves (mine, but also oak leaves blown in from the woods across the road) to plug our street's gutters and storm drains. This first round of raking is nothing but fffffuture ffffflood management--not insignificant given our usual fall showers.

Then mid-October arrives, and everything suddenly gets blanketed in bright yellow cherry leaves. Our cherries are right on the southern property line, and the dropped leaves are sort of mushy. They make a slippery mess of my neighbor's driveway if I don't get them picked up quickly. And a day or two after cherry-fall, the maples begin to relax, and they wreak havoc on my northern neighbor's otherwise perfectly manicured lawn. So I suppose those cherry and maple raking weekends could be considered fffffriendly neighbor insurance. (They're all perfectly nice people who've never complained, which is why I didn't call it fffffeud prevention!)

Yes, this is very similar to the photo above. Isn't there just something artful about a rake leaning lazily against a tree?

Next, it's time to take after the back yard again, where my dogwood and our neighbor-behind's water birch have given up also. When I'm finished, I always think the yard look so neat and tidy despite the washed-out colors that define fall in this region.

Fffffalse security! There are still at least two more maple rakings to go. Which, coupled with seasonal winds that shake even more pine straw loose than the rest of the year 'round, makes the whole job seem like sheer fffffutility.

under the back yard maple, not 12 hours after I raked it

And finally, around late November, the driveway trees (no absolutely firm ID, but they seem to be some kind of elder), which have been completely un-green for two full months, decide it's time to let go, too. And like the maples, they do so in stages. Here's what they looked like before...

It's almost too pretty to clean up...until they start blowing into gutters again.

 ...and after I raked under them this past Friday morning. For the second time.

And yes, there are still leaves yet to fall here, too.

Like I said, though, I love yard work. What keeps me busy most of the time is indoors, so I jump at the chance to breathe in open air and earn a little extra vitamin D and exercise endorphins, too. But there's another reason all this raking is worth the effort. What I don't rake directly into the front yard's flower beds as mulch, I haul into the back yard and dump in the vegetable patch.

maple, and more maple, and more maple leaves

This year, the garden gained 28 wheelbarrow loads of maple leaves and another 13 loads of maybe-elder. Yes, I kept a tally! All that leaf mould makes for a very fffffertile kitchen garden.

Not to mention a great place for jumping in the off season. Fffffun!

Whee!

It might looks like she's Riverdancing, but no. Just happy leaf jumping.

I realize this one LOOKS like it's going to end in tears. It's just an illusion from the angle. I swear he didn't land on her knees-first. He didn't actually land on her at all.

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And, to end on another fffffestive note: We're not New England, but here you can see we do get a very brief spate of color before things go gray and brown.

a neighbor's brilliant yellow *something* tree

my dogwood

same dogwood up close = more colors