Winter: getting what I want

-

-

standing in the meadow path, facing the pine woods

I asked for snow in the morning (last post), and I got what I wanted that night. When I woke up, and the sun began to rise, these were the scenes around us. Sometimes we get what we want. And sometimes we want what we get. But often neither is true. I wonder about this. I love winter and welcome it with glee equal to what I feel in spring in intensity, but it is a very different feeling. Most people think winter is pretty with a clean covering of snow. But I have found that a rather small portion of the population likes to be in winter, with the cold. Even though my fingers ache as the cold grips them, I can't imagine myself without winter. Maybe my psyche is accustomed to the four seasons, having grown up in Michigan. When we lived in southern California five years, it never felt right to me. I don't want it warm year round! I don't want the lushness all the time of Birds of Paradise and jasmine vine. I want the smell of sunlight refrigerated in earth. I want the low light of the sun. I want frosty air on my face. I want things to stop growing a while. I want this.

the front yard; can you see a bit of our road on the right?

 Bishop loves the snow too; her coat is very thick

When she comes out of her heated garage bed in the morning,
she squirms around in the snow

looking toward the outbuildings from the house;
from left to right: barn, corncrib, shed, l'atelier

two maples Don taps for sap in March,
and the catalpa on the right line the driveway

the barn and corncrib

starting out on the path toward the meadow, looking toward the orchard
where Lesley and Brian were married;
corncrib is on the far right, where we store yard tools on one side
firewood on the other, and the Farmall tractor between;
l'atelier just behind

facing the back of the property where the meadow and woods await;

corncrib on the right, barn on the left,
with the lilac bush, blooming white "blossoms"

 barn and lilac

the beginning of the path to the meadow

the meadow, with lots of deer tracks!
sumac on the right

sumac silhouetted against the morning sky

meadow and pines

walnuts our neighbor planted next door to our pine woods;

many people here in Michigan planted walnut trees

as an investment; I wonder if they are still worth a lot

the way they were in the 1980s

the path through the pine woods

under a white pine, where I'd like to camp out one day,
maybe not in the winter; but who knows? 

I am experimenting with white balance for the first time;
I thought winter with snow is a good time to start shooting in RAW mode;
you can see different tones in these photos;
this may reflect my lack of expertise, but I have tried
to be true to the different tones of light on this morning;
maybe I should compile a Monet series
of specific scenes in varied times of day and seasons

-

-