Saturday, December 5, 2009

It's Iowa

Those who have lived here know; those who haven't, have heard the stories.  It's all true.  Four seasons in a day is normal.  So far this trip we've had sunshine, rain, sleet, ice, snow, warm weather, sub-freezing weather, wind, no wind, crystal clear and fog so dense you couldn't see the end of the hood of your car- sometimes all in 24 hours!

Thanksgiving was clear, but cold & kinda windy. The wind kicked the lake up over the seawall, leaving icicles dangling from the trees & everything else lining the shore. Dave braved the cold during a lull in the breeze and took the baby Canon down to capture some of the neatest sculptures - I stayed in the warm, dry house & snapped a few of him from the windows.

Later I couldn't resist taking a new lens down and having a little photography play myself - this time Dave stayed in the house & snapped me in my super cuddly pink fleecy boots. I love the sun chair covered in ice - just thinking about laying out next to the lake sends shivers down my spine!

The ice had cocooned leaves, twigs & blades of grass. I am easily amused, I know, but I thought it was very cool looking (no pun intended!)


The next evening nature put on a show as only Big Spirit Lake can. I still believe the sunsets here are the most amazing anywhere.
Looking south

West

Into the basement windows

For those who are interested in such things, I shot these in RAW then bumped the black to +4 in Lightroom (except the basement window where I added +3 fill light, too). I didn't mess with the colours. Isn't the purple house just too funky?!

Then, of course, we had yesterday's lovely covering of snow. And it's still falling, though very gently. Roads are icy and polished to a slick black glass in places but the sun is shining. Zip-pe-di-do-dah around corners, on the lee side of groves and other funhouse road areas. It's a whole 20F (-7C) and that will be our high today - yippeee! I see it's about 37C in Exmouth again today, but I wouldn't trade places (since I'll only be here in the tundra for a short time!)

Heck, I'm so tough I stood outside in the swirling snow for, oh, I don't know, 90 seconds while posing for this shot!

2 comments:

Gilsner said...

LOVE the shot with the blade of grass, encased in ice. Very cool (pun intended, lol!)

I bought a baby Canon too! SX200 IS. But, most importantly, it's pink, lol.

Going to Vegas next weekend. You should come! You know, since you're in the neighborhood ;)

ChaseH said...

I hope you're not still in Iowa. Looks rough there today.