The World in Black and White, and some Blue Here and There

We had another snow on 21 January. Actually, we’ve had a lot of snow this year and are expecting even more this weekend, but on this day, we had my favorite kind of snow. It was the big fluffy soft flakes that fall gently and stick to everything. Add in a grey sky and the world looks like a black and white photo. All of these photos are in full natural color. A few were taken with a flash, but most not. It’s a natural effect and so very peaceful. I also love to see tree branches covered in snow.

This is my big oak tree

And here are the two large maples where the swings are hung.

Here come the kids down the lane

Swinging, and a few snowballs, with friends.

Some sledding and snowboarding happened too.

And there was even a snowman.

And here are some interesting photo: I went out to walk the recycle bin down to the curb, and took my camera with me. While these photos make it look like I was walking through a blizzard, it was actually just freezing fog. Without a flash, the air looked almost perfectly clear. Like the first photo here with the lamp. However, I wanted to try and take some photos of the snowy branches in the dark, like the second photo, with a flash, just to see how they’d turn out… that’s when I discovered that the air was full of tiny frozen fog crystals which caused the ‘blizzard’ effect. It was rather pretty, although I couldn’t get the branch photos as I’d planned.

Meanwhile, on the inside, Pumpkin knows that the best way to stay warm, is to snuggle.

School was still in session the following day, and while it was cold out, it hadn’t been very windy. All of the trees were still coated in snow. Everything had that eerie blue tone that only reflecting snow can manage, and it was blissfully quiet out. Only a few cars were out on the roads in the distance. Brian and I saw plenty of traffic through the yard though. Like these deer prints heading towards the neighbor’s yard.

Many stopped to drink at the little pool of water, and it looks like a deer party was held out near the Mulberry tree.

There’s a fox who makes regular treks across our property too.

Some of these look like cat feet, but I want to say that it’s probably still the fox. We’ve not seen any feral cats in the area.

And here’s an awesome photo of Brian, trying to smile and not shiver too much.

It still looks like B&W photography!

Our front yard, acting like a post card.

Honor had to go to school too. We messed around a bit too much this particular morning and so she had to make a run for the bus! (The driver would have waited. Both kids have very nice drivers.)

And after all of these cold snowy photos, here are a couple of warm and snuggly ones. I had decided to take a nap on the couch with a thick blanket. When I woke up, I discovered that somebody else had decided to join me under the blanket! I’m used to Pixie snoozing with me, actually, I’m used to her sleeping on me, but this time she’d decided to burrow under the blanket too.