The Lazy Mist

So dull and dark are the November days.

The lazy mist high up the evening curled,

And now the morn quite hides in smoke and haze;

The place we occupy seems all the world."

~ John Clare

A week into November, the day started off sunny and bright. I made some coffee and settled in at my desk to check email and to see what was happening on social media. Time passed and I was probably about to pour a second cup when I turned to look out the window. No more sunshine. But no real cloud. It had become rather foggy, and the sunlight was ever so slightly visible on the edge of the haze. Time to grab the camera and head out.


I wandered around the neighbourhood for a while. The sun was already threatening to burn through the mist and I decided to make my way to the river.






Although the air was crisp enough between the bench and where I was standing, I could scarcely make out the opposite river bank.






The view came into focus a bit better once I reached the shore.






Bare trees and misty air. Cold - and yet comforting.






It wasn't long before the sun brought brighter colours into view.






The day soon resumed as it had started - in full sunshine.






Ten days later, on November 18th, the day warmed up to near-summer temperatures. I needed nothing warmer than a t-shirt for my walk.






I wandered in areas both familiar and less so. This was one of the latter.






The day smelled like spring, felt like summer, looked like autumn...






...and yet, in anticipation of winter,  people were taking the opportunity to decorate for Christmas.






Despite the unseasonal warmth, the playground was devoid of kidlets.






The ducks were strutting around as if they had somehow managed to sidestep winter altogether. I might have been doing likewise.






The end of a perfect day.

Reality returned two days later with below-freezing temperatures, very strong winds and a little more than a dusting of snow. But it sure was nice while it lasted.

More photos coming up before too long.

I Like It That Way

You will find this to be a more oniony soup than the usual kind but, as the cross old lady said when a stranger told her that her slip was showing, "I like it that way." ~ Margaret Yardley Potter

One day, last winter, I had a craving for some French onion soup.

Banish the onion from the kitchen and the pleasure flies with it. Its presence lends color and enchantment to the most modest dish; its absence reduces the rarest delicacy to hopeless insipidity, and dinner to despair.

~ Elizabeth Robbins Pennell

I had never made it before and went in search of a recipe. I decided on this one. It was more time consuming than I'd imagined, allowing the onions to caramelize but it was also incredibly yummy. This is what six or seven large onions simmered down to.

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food. ~ W. C. Fields

The recipe states that wine is optional. Ha! I wouldn't possibly consider opting out of adding this flavour enhancer.

Cheese is milk's leap toward immortality. ~ Cliff Fadiman

And given the choice between Gruyere and Parmesan cheese, I went for the former. I probably even added a bit of the latter.

Unfortunately, there were no photos take of the finished product. It disappeared far too quickly. Plus I forgot. Mostly, I forgot (I did mention the wine, right?). But it was delicious. I strongly recommend this recipe. If you happen to make it, please let me know how you like it.

Nature unfolds her treasure at the first ray of sunrise. ~ Kishore Bansal

A winter sunrise possesses so many vibrant, jewel-tone colours. This was the view outside my apartment window, a few mornings back.


We've had some crazy weather, this winter. We keep jumping from above-seasonal highs to deep freezes, only to warm up a day or two later with rain, freezing rain or a large dump of snow. Someone (probably my sister) on Facebook suggested that Mother Nature might be menopausal. That sounded about right. As I type, we are experiencing freezing rain which weather-watchers predict will turn to rain as the temperatures rise to just above freezing over the next few hours.

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. ~ Carl Reiner

This image of the eastward-facing view across Little Lake was taken last week, after a snowfall and before the melt.

...now and then a giggling trail of mermaids appeared in our wake. We fed them oatmeal. ~ Tove Jansson

The water tower you see straight ahead belongs to Quaker Oats/PepsiCo. This factory has been in Peterborough since 1902 but was rebuilt after a devastating fire destroyed it in 1916. When the wind is blowing just right (or just wrong), you can smell the sickeningly-sweet smell of their flavoured oatmeal wafting through the east end of the city. At first the scent is pleasant - like fresh baking but eventually it can permeate the air quite relentlessly, forcing you to find something with which you can overpower it. Like wine.

Nothing burns like the cold. ~ George R.R. Martin

It was a brilliant, sunny day but very windy and much too cold to just sit for a while. The windchill was around -24C (-11F). I played around with the colour/effect in this and the next image in Photoshop a bit.

And finally Winter, with its bitin', whinin' wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. ~ Roy Bean

You can see by the absence of footprints that nobody had interest in stepping out on the dock.

Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen. ~ Willa Cather

A glance southward.

Here am I floating

'round my tin can

Far above the Moon

Planet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do.

~ David Bowie

A couple of evenings ago, we had a full moon. This image was taken shortly after it rose. Unfortunately, it was snapped through two panes of  less-than-sparkling-clean glass, one window screen and the branches of a tree a city block away. Still, it demanded I take its picture. Bossy old moon!

More photos coming up.. eventually.

The Rise and Fall of the Winter Sun

A few sunrises and sunsets from last winter.. last home.. last life.

Sunrises

Male or female, if my name were either Don or Dawn, I'd be up at sunrise to celebrate the glory that is me.

~ Jarod Kintz

The morning of February 11, 2015

Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.

~ Glen Cook

January 29th's sunrise.

The sun got confused about daylight savings time. It rose twice. Everything had two shadows.

~ Steven Wright

February 11th through my bedroom deck.

Four AM - if I'm ever up that early, it's because I'm up that late.

~ Jarod Kintz

Same day - different window. And considerably later than 4 a.m.

The sun never sets on the British Empire. But it rises every morning. The sky must get awfully crowded.

~ Steven Wright

January 26th also pitched in with some pretty colours.

Sunsets

I need to call it a night. But only because I don't know what else to call it. What's in between evening and morning?

~ Jarod Kintz

A lovely end to Groundhog Day, February 2, 2115.

If a university's colors were blue and pink, they could be the Fighting Sunsets.

~ Jarod Kintz

January 27th - dusk over the frozen lake.

As the evening sky faded from a salmon color to a sort of flint gray, I thought back to the salmon I caught that morning, and how gray he was, and how I named him Flint. ~ Jack Handy

This is how it looked over the bay on Valentine's Day.

Speeding along I-10 last summer, heading west, I chased the sunset, thinking if I kept up I could extend my day indefinitely, or at least until I hit a major body of water. ~ Jarod Kintz

Facing west, outside the kitchen window and over the hills. Also February 14th.

Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he's carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he's carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you're drunk.

~ Jack Handy

A slightly zoomed in view.

We All Shine On

Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.

~ John Lennon

So, I'm sure you've figured out by now that I can not resist snapping photos of our sunrises. Those I don't sleep through, that is. I have far more sunrise and moonrise images than I could ever show at the start and end of a blog post so why not find some good quotes and just post a bunch of them here? Kind of get it over with all at once. So I'll do just that. I hope you enjoy those great orbs in our beautiful sky. All of them were taken long before the cold weather settled in.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

~ Rumi

The moon is friend for the lonesome to talk to.

~ Carl Sandburg

Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.

~ George Washington Carver

The moon rested right above the mountains, a place I call home.

~ Daniel Wallock

The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it's here is up to us. Journey wisely.

~ Alexandra Elle

(Taken through the window screen)

The moon is at her full, and riding high, Floods the calm fields with light. The airs that hover in the summer sky Are all asleep tonight.

~William C. Bryant

This far north the sun was up, although very low, riding through the mountains as if looking for something it lost on the ground.

~ Craig Childs

It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the Moon.

~ Galileo Galilei

The Sage's Wish: Like Sun, from the East, may you continue to rise, smile and shine.

~ Ogwo David Emenike

The moon in her chariot of pearl.

~ Oscar Wilde

Universe is the Sun watching its own self.

~ Dejan Stojanovic

Go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly.

~ Khaled Hosseini

Even

After

All this time

The Sun never says to the Earth,

"You owe me."

Look

What happens

With a love like that,

It lights the whole sky.

~Hafiz of Shiraz

The peaceful splendour of the night healed again. The moon was now past the meridian and traveling down the west. It was at its full, and very bright, riding through the empty blue sky.

~ H.G. Wells

I'll have more photos ready to rise and shine before you know it.

In the Right Light

All of these photos were taken in September and early October. The lake looks nothing like this right now. In fact it's frozen over, snow-covered and melting into icky slush with today's rain. It looked much prettier a couple of months back so I figured I'd pull some of those pics for you instead. I hope you enjoy them. 

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary." - Aaron Rose

They say that photography is all about shadow and light. Of course it is. It's also about opportunity, equipment and a huge dose of luck. But just for the sake of being agreeable, this post is all about light and its ever-present shadows.


This was a very overcast day. I know, it doesn't look all that gloomy but it was dark just moments before and moments after this photo was snapped. The clouds parted ever so briefly, allowing the sun to shine its light - creating vibrant colours and a few dark shadows. The contrast just makes everything come alive.






On a different day, it rained off and on throughout the daylight hours. We counted no fewer than 4 different rainbows between us. Only a bit of this one showed up but it was rather vibrant, and you can see the rain falling from the clouds above where that lovely sunshine fell.





One evening, the clouds seemed to be lit from the side creating a soft pink edge - like an illuminated shelf of cloud.





Sunset on our bay is rarely full of deep, saturated colours because we face east. Behind us is where the real colour is happening but that's blocked by the hills which lie west of us. Every now and then, there's a sunset that must explode with such intensity for those facing west, that its bounce and reflection paints the sky and water of our eastern view. And we're not complaining for one itty bitty moment.






Please indulge me. I can not resist taking image after image when the sky is like this. I'm only going to show you a few. Note how the moon had already risen on this lovely evening in early September.






One more showing the wavelets forming from a passing boat.






Incoming ripples and the moon reflecting on the water.






And a final close up of the colours on the lake's rolling surface. You can add your own sound effects.






Oh just one more - I couldn't resist. A bird flying through a pink sky while wispy clouds kiss the moon's cheek in passing.






We're oh so incredibly lucky that full moons happen to rise over the lake, directly in front of our door. Here's that lovely glowing orb just before it cleared the treetops across the bay. This was actually the night after the full moon - but close enough.






And here it was the night before, sliding in and out of subtle colours of the clouds. What shall it wear tonight to make its October début?

With a bit of luck, shadow and light can go a long way.

More photos coming up soon.