Photography

The pendulum season

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We are in the pendulum season – where it is spring one day and winter the next, in which ever direction the pendulum settles. We’ve enjoyed a false spring of moderate temperatures where everyone had a smile on their face. Then quickly winter came again, with it’s surprise snow, cold winds, and freezing temperatures. The other morning we woke to a fresh coating of two inches of snow. It had rained before turning to snow, allowing the wet snow to collect on the branches and trees.

It’s a slow and unreliable process to change from winter to spring, and all we can do is swing with the pendulum. We keep winter coats, hats and boots handy, along with a light spring jacket. I have seen some open water, especially in the creeks where there’s a current flowing. And with that we’ve had mallards and swans that have come back into the area.

Eventually the pendulum will swing all the way forward to spring and we will put our cold and snow behind us. We’ll look to greening grass and leaves on the trees – it can’t be much further ahead!

Mid-winter, and newer images

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We have reached mid-winter. We had a string of sub-zero temperatures in mid-January, bottoming out at -32 degrees. Those were the days to hunker down inside, keep warm, and be thankful for modern conveniences and warm clothes.

We’ve also had a string of mild days, some with sunshine and some with gray skies. If the sun is out, the snow will compact or even melt in places. The roads become sloppy, then often freeze overnight as the temperatures drop. And when we have sunshine it seems our spirits lift – there’s the promise of spring and its warming sun. People, including myself, react to the prospect of spring with smiles and hope. Hope – something we’re all looking for this year in particular, in this part of the country (and elsewhere too). To me that hope is found in the setting sun each day, and the promise of its rise the following morning. The clouds and sun can give a symphony of colors, each one different as they sweep across the sky.

I’ve added a new page to my website that has some of my newer images. You can find it as a listing in the top menu of my website, or as a drop-down choice. As I look at this collection I see the hope and light that I just spoke of in the paragraph above. A light that brightens or softens, that reflects or shapes. I hope you’ll enjoy the 16 images on the page and appreciate the hope that abides in each season and day.

Turning into winter

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Today was a morning to pull out my warm winter coat, hat, and gloves for my daily walk. With a cold start to the dawn at 18 degrees, I was treated to tiny and intricate bits of frost decorating the fallen leaves. I marveled at our passing into yet another season, and couldn’t help but think back to warmer temperatures and a now-distant summer.

At the end of August we set out on a three-week camping trip. We left northwest Wisconsin and traveled through Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming – admiring the landscape changes and the beauty that’s found in every state. We drove through prairies, sunflower fields, and canyons. We enjoyed sunsets and moon rises. We camped with family while in Utah, where I was fortunate to catch my first trout!

We took in the majesty of the relatively-snow-less Teton Mountain Range and we stood in awe of the immensity of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

We journeyed back through the big-sky state of Montana and finished our trip in the badlands of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with the fall colors beginning to appear alongside the Little Missouri River valley.

So on these clear cold days leading further into winter, I especially enjoy the chance to revisit and appreciate the warmth and expansiveness, as well as the beauty and the variety of landscapes that we enjoyed a mere two months ago as we journeyed west.

Fall flight

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In my last post I promised to share images from our camping trip to the west. But that will have to wait – fall has arrived in all its glory here in northwestern Wisconsin. The colors started to turn in early October, but we then had a week of unusually warm weather both during the day and the night. With that, the change of colors seemed to stall. And then strong and gusty winds blew all the color onto the ground.

A second phase soon developed, and our rich autumn colors have progressed to peak. It is a glorious time to be out and about. Every road and every field is alight with color. The golds and yellows, reds and oranges, and the deep russet of the oaks – they are all appearing in a symphony of color right now.

With this there is a great migration of birds coming through and starting their journey south. The loons were gone by the first few days of October. The males left first and were followed later by the females, leaving the young ones to fend for themselves and then to head south on their own. It’s amazing to me that these loons that were only born a few months ago can navigate their way south by themselves.

The Canada geese and the wood ducks are gathering. The sandhill cranes are feeding in the harvested fields. Soon all of these will be leaving. The last birds to come through our area seem to be the hooded mergansers. They will arrive and yet leave a short time later. And then our lakes will start to freeze.

But this is the time to know that the cycle of seasons continues once again, and we can appreciate Mother Nature’s palette of colors before we transition to winter.