Seems to be a favorite spot.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Canon 135mm F2L Lens – Very nice.

Winter Weather – I suppose it was inevitable, but winter is here in a big way.

Three Day Weekend – Last holiday until Memorial Day.

We were supposed to have a new stove delivered today. Of course today was the worst weather day so far this winter. We had icy roads, blowing snow, bitter cold, etc. All the things that make winter so enjoyable. Our stove was on its way to us inside a large tractor trailer. The driver of the tractor trailer decided to let a small electronic box known as a GPS tell him which way to get to our house. He had the choice of three roads which go south off Rt 16 and lead to our house. Two of the roads are level with Rt 16 and one has a sizable hill with a sharp turn near the top. Despite the fact that the roads were badly iced, the driver turned his brain over to the GPS, which told him to take the hilly road. He (and our stove) spent the rest of the afternoon nicely stuck halfway around the bend in the hilly road. By the time he got unstuck (with the help of a very large wrecker), it was dark and even nastier. Our neighborhood entrance is just barely over the crest of another large hill which was also very icy. This time the driver used his brain and decided against trying to turn into our neighborhood as there was a good chance he’d slide in the turn and then slide on down the hill. I don’t blame him for not wanting to try it. But that meant our new stove got within 100 yds of our house and no closer. Maybe next week we’ll get to cook again.

In preparation for moving the new stove in, I had to empty Sarah’s doll case and set the dolls on the dining room table. As I had nothing to do but wait for the stove, I decided to try some portrait shots. The doll generously agreed to strike a pose. The depth of field is a bit shallow, but I like the way they came out. The doll was impressed.

No pun intended.

This evening the whole sky was brilliant orange for just a few minutes. By the time I found a place to pull over and set up, the orange was almost gone. Still pretty colorful, though.

Bird merge. This is a merger of 24 images shot a few seconds apart. Lots of bird activity at the feeder today. One thing that struck me when I was merging these images was how the birds seem to have favorite roosting spots. The areas that have birds in this image actually had lots of birds that would have overlapped, whereas the areas with no birds simply had no birds landing there for the whole span of time.

Today we walked around Salem, MA.

We spent the day poking around Gloucester, MA.

As I’ve said before, we never visit Connecticut without stopping in at the Book Barn in Niantic. Today was the day.