Seasons Change

Day 1/365

After enduring a long cold, and snowy winter, the first day of Spring arrived today. I went down to the pond late this afternoon to take some pictures. It sure didn't look like it was a Spring day.......but that shouldn't surprise us with the kind of winter we had. It's good to know that sunnier and warmer days are ahead.
By this date, the swans are usually building their nest...... on a typical year. But as we know, this is not a typical year. The pond is still 95 % frozen and snow covered.
So, as the snow fell this afternoon, Daddy Swan posed pretty for me in a few close-up shots. Here's one of them:

***Did you know that I wrote the very first blog post six years ago today?***

You also may have noticed some changes to the look of the blog. Each year on the first day of Spring, which is the first day of the new blog year, I change some of the colors and fonts.

I have decided to go back to the original purpose of this blog this year......I am going to take a photograph and write a blog post every day for the next 365 days. Ready or not........here we go!!!!!! Thank you for joining me in this photographic journey.

Happy birthday Miss J!

A beautiful flower for a beautiful girl. She makes the world a better place. There are not enough words to tell you how proud I am of the person, the daughter, the wife, and the mother that she is. She lights up my life! I love you Miss J.

Kennedy's Garden Center, Scituate MA

Scituate is a lovely little coastal town, not far from where I live, and it's one of my favorite places to do landscape photography. I met up with some members of my camera club yesterday morning in Scituate......but this time it was for indoor photography at a garden center.

As I was driving there along beautiful Rte 123 in Norwell, I was thinking how depressing it looks outside right now. The snowbanks are at least four or five feet high, and they are filthy dirty rotten covered in black. Many of the beautiful historic homes along the road were so buried in snow you could not appreciate their beauty. It's been a very cold icy snowy winter here and I think we are all ready for Spring......Summer.......the beaches..........Aaaaaaahhhhhh. Yes. All of those things sound great right now!! So this "road trip" to the garden center is just what I needed!!!!!

Flowers!!!! Yes!!!! And it was in the 80's.....hot and humid in the greenhouses. Yes!!!!!!

I spent a lot of the time in the gift shop area. I LOVED seeing all of the pretty Spring and Summer and Beachy items!!!!!!

Starfish.......yes please! (And I bought some)

Sea shells!!!!

Love this little window display.

These furry little chicks are so adorable. I bought three of them.

I sound like a broken record.....seems like I say this every time I blog.....but we are expecting another 6 inches of snow here tonight.

Oh joy.

But actually it's not a bad thing for a few reasons.

1. What's six more inches anyways?

2, The fresh new snow will cover up the yucky dirty snow so at least it will be pretty and clean and sparkly tomorrow.

There's always a bight side, even if we have to look for it....it's there!

A little bit of this and that

It's snowing here. Again. Right now. Because we already have gotten close to 8 feet of snow in three and a half weeks, the couple of inches we are getting today seem inconsequential. Do you want to see my front door? This is just a "snapshot" but gives you an idea of how much snow is piled up here.

Let's go back to sunrise from the other morning, shall we? Here's another image I took that glorious morning that I'd like to share with you.

On a totally different subject, Ryleigh came by my house to visit on Valentines Day. She was wearing her pretty Valentine outfit, and when she broke out dancing, I just had to snap a few pictures of her dance moves!

She tires to snap her fingers. She kinda dances like her Nana. :-)

Look at her shake that cute little booty!

I heart this face!

Happy Fat Tuesday. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I'm going to give up snow for Lent, how about you??????

Happy Valentine's Day!

It doesn't seem possible, but one year ago today my mother was called home by God for Valentine's Day. My Mother was the most loving person I have ever known. God knew what he was doing. ;-)

So, this morning, on the one year anniversary of her death, I felt drawn to go to the beach for sunrise. My sister Kathleen came with me, and we were treated to a glorious sunrise and a spectacular morning.

This was the temperature from my car (please notice the minus sign)

Although it was below zero, it certainly didn't feel that cold. The air was still. There was no wind. The surf was almost calm, with just small waves rolling to the shore. It was peaceful, it was beautiful, and most of all it was therapeutic.

This image was taken at Peggotty Beach in Scituate MA, about ten minutes before sunrise.

Here is the sun rising from First Cliff

Scituate Harbor

Scituate Lighthouse

Minots Ledge Light

And Cohasset Harbor

It doesn't seem possible that in a few hours, this area is going to be hit with a blizzard with 60 mph winds and coastal flooding. As I type this, the snow has already started to fall. 

I hope you are enjoying your Valentine's Day. For those of you reading this in Massachusetts, I hope you stay safe tonight and tomorrow. xxoo

Snowmagedon

Since my last blog post, we have received an additional 26 inches (plus) of snow. Within 17 days, we received over 70 inches of snow here in the Boston area of Southern New England. There is so much snow piled up here on The South Shore of Boston, that the National Guard has been called in to help with snow removal. I passed some of the National Guard trucks on my way home from work today. Here is one of them:

There are multiple building collapses in the area as well.

I hope to get out with the camera within the next day or two to take some pictures. Tomorrow we are expecting just a few more inches, with a probable Nor'Easter this weekend bringing more substantial snow (a foot plus) this weekend.

Gah!!!!!!

Im baaaaaaaack!!

Well, things haven't turned out the way I planned for the 2015 blog. I got the flu and had some flu related complications. Ie: have been very sick, which equals no photography. It's a shame because we have about ten feet of snow on the ground (okay an exaggeration.......but we have about 3-4 feet) with a foot more coming over the next few days. Wish I had been healthy enough to get out there and shoot all of the pretty snow......and it really has been pretty!!!!

But I'm feeling a lot better, and I'm getting very itchy to go out shooting. That's a good sign!

My camera club had a recent "Morning coffee challenge".........where if you chose to participate you could shoot some pictures of your morning coffee. So, the other day I felt good enough to dust off the camera (not really) and set up a few morning coffee pictures. Not my best work, but it was a fun exercise. Here are a few of the images:

Let it snow.....let it snow.....let it snow..........

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em