Bright, Sunny and Cold!

Bright and cold...a very frosty morning.  You would think with all that sun shine that the temperature would be up high enough to melt the snow and warm the air.  This is the mid-west.  We dodged the ice that was forecasted the last couple of nights, it got into the low 40's yesterday with rain, and the snow that was a possibility.  Just north of us schools are closed or on a delay.  Super Bowl Sunday is suppose to bring another round of forecasted snow that is suppose to cover the middle 1/3 of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and into New York.  Sorry N.Y. 

Next month is typically one of our more unpredictable months followed by March.  March is the month of sudden wet snow storms with ice storms more likely.  I can handle the snow....boo on the ice. 

Frosty Mornings

Lots of humidity with a good amount of cold or "lack of heat" produces some great mornings outside in the mid-west.  This is one of them.

Tracks In The Snow

Tracks in the newly fallen snow this morning.  Looks like someone was confused as to which way to go in the beginning.

And then decided to leave or find a new place to be, like around the light post.  One confused little bird.

On Display

Just playing around with a small metal Porsche that sits in my computer room.  Can't call it an office, I gave that up with retirement.  Working people have offices.  At any rate, I was watching the Daytona 24 HR race and decided to take a shot of this desktop car.  Eliminated the background added some color, the car is all chrome and voila.  Not too sure about the border.

Close-up....Hawk

This is our Cooper Hawk, not mine but one that lives near by our neighborhood.  It's been here for several years and yet it may not be seen for long periods of time.  I have pictures of it on the neighbors deck, and another neighbors roof.  In that one I caught it diving down just over my head and then swooping up in a tree in the front yard where it found a nest of young robins.  They're posted in this blog somewhere.

Here it is about twenty feet out back over a bird feeder.  It took off between the the houses, maybe it saw the mouse that I have seen signs of in the grass.  What a mouser to have.

Winter Colors

Even though the colors are dulled by winter conditions, color is still there.

Sold!

     I was watching the Barrett Jackson auction last night and a 2005 Ford GT came up on the block.  It was serial number 003 which means that the car was the first to be sold to the public.  Per the MC's hosting the show numbers 1 and 2 went to private owners.  I'm assuming one may have been the Ford museum and the other to someone like Carroll Shelby or a Ford exec.  The silver (gray) one that went on auction block last night.  It didn't meet the reserve so at 470,000 it left the stage.  Maybe it was sold afterwards, they do that sometimes.  My guess is that the reserve may have been at a half million and then you add the costs of the sale and the buyer pays a whole lot more, maybe 25%.  Ten year old car that cost $155,000 new if you got lucky enough to pay that price.  In 1994 the new Camaro was selling for manufactures price and even higher due to the fact it was a major model change and GM wasn't producing them very fast.  They weren't even running three shifts so you can see it was price driven for the dealers....fools.  I digress, the Ford is worth the money but for other reasons.

     I took this shot back in 2009 at a local car show put on by John Dixon of Taj Ma Garaj for our local children's hospital Ronald McDonald's House.  John was an avid Porsche man, the TMG was a local garage specializing in foreign makes and he owned a local Porsche museum.  John passed away from cancer a year ago after a long battle.

Just Some Random Shots

    Nice thing about have some items in your backyard is that when it's cold you don't necessarily need to go out for a descent view.  I built this feeder hoping to attract winter birds and giving them food if we got a lot of snow.  Haven't seen a bird in it yet.  In fact, other than three crows that come every morning at 9 AM sharply and a red tail hawk we've been bird free.  Oh yea, there was that day when we were invaded by starlings.  Ate all the berries off the Pear trees.  The feeder will be busy enough in another 5 or 6 weeks.

    What I liked here was the tufts of snow left on the branches.  Almost looks like cotton balls.  They will be gone today as the temp gets up into the mid to upper 40's.

    One draw back of winter.....long shadows.  This is not early morning shadows but closer to 9 or so. The heat from the suns light just skips across the surface, not getting a chance to warm us up.  This too will pass and you won't be hearing me complain about how warm it is.

Fridays Winter Colors

It's not all white with snow or glum and gray.

The pines in the background bring out the green we associate with summer and the red it the new growth on the branches brings out the hope of newness in the spring.

A lone rock in the frozen pond shows its slight limestone color of yellows.

Friday's Winter Color on a Saturday (I'm late)

Well, in my last post I said I would find color in winter and maybe start posting it on Fridays.  This is it but on Saturday.  Yesterday was spent on small wood projects, running some cables to relocate a TV and the mounting of said TV on a concrete basement wall.  This isn't much but the next phase was....the TV didn't work.  It should work, I Googled it to make sure, I was dead on.  I even spent time after dinner and couldn't get the coax feed to work from the AT&T U-verse box.  All is working now so now I will post my "winter color".

Yes, they are turned off but only since earlier in the week. Photo doesn't do them justice.  LED's of all colors.  Flashing and dancing.

See, There Is Color In Winter

I don't know if I can get to where I do a "post of the week" as many bloggers do but I may try it.  Maybe Fridays can be my Winter Color of the Week, that way I would have all week to prep.  But then  if I did it on Thursdays it would still give me a week to prepare.  

I try it on Friday and with that said this will be my first post of color in the winter.  There is nothing that says it has to be outdoors, just that there needs to be some color and for that color to mean something by satisfying or sparking memories or wants and needs.  In this first post I am being reminded of food, not good if you're on a diet.  It could be sweets, or comfort food but these are just simple utensils used in cooking.

The Begining of 2015

It's here, 2015.  At this time last year we had and had had snow on the ground for well over a month.  Started a little after Halloween and kept on going until very late March.  This winter seemed like it was going to start the same way with a big arctic blast and snow in early November.

No snow for Christmas, the only day it's needed, and the weather hasn't been all that cold until just the last few days.  All I can say to that is, it's winter.

So, for the next couple of months this is what most people in this area will see....gray skies, foliage with out color and a limited amount of wildlife, even though I just built a pretty simple but nice bird feeder.  This particular bush has purple berries that will dry out during the winter and then in late March will become food for the birds.  There is color, even in the cold mid-west air.  I will find it and show it off.

I do know where some of the wildlife (geese) went.....south to Florida.  They're at my brother place.
I have photographic evidence.  He can keep them for pets.