The Bane of Winter

  It is now early January, and we are just a little past the Christmas season.  The holiday lights and decorations are gone, except for a few lingering reminders.  Soon those few remaining displays will be gone as well. We are now entering the bane of winter, which is why I took the pictures that appear here.  I wanted to go out and get some shots of bare trees to convey the image of this time of year, just past the holiday season, and the winter solstice, and before the thawing of spring comes.  It’s a time of short, cold days although they get progressively and noticeably longer as the winter moves through February.  There is often snow on the ground, although there has been very little of it so far in this area.

  The weather was actually warm on Saturday when I took these pictures.  It was a great day to go outside, especially since there won’t be too many days like it in the months to come.  But the actual weather didn’t matter a whole lot to me when I took these pictures.  The trees will still be bare, and the camera can’t catch the unseasonably warm weather unless there are some visual indicators in the background, like someone wearing shorts or a few crocuses popping up through the grass.  There were boats out on the lake that day, but not at that moment.  What I got was a winter picture, although a frozen lake and snow would have made it look more convincing.

  In the months ahead, we’ll be looking at more cold weather, with a few mild days here and there.  Although there has been very little snow so far, there will likely be some snow days coming.  We have a few snow shovels in our basement, and I expect to be using them before the winter is over.  I’ll be using my camera as well, to capture the images of the fallen snow when it comes.  Right now, I’m still using the heat and defrost in my car.  The cycle of time will turn as it always does, and spring will be here before we realize it.  The weather will get warmer, the days longer, and the trees and bushes will bloom.  But until then, we’ll be going through the bane of winter, as these pictures show.