The Colors of Nature

Back in October, I went out into Central Bucks with my Samsung Galaxy and my Canon Power Shot to capture some of the fall foliage.  I found a spot I liked behind Buckingham Elementary School.  There wasn’t a whole lot of open field back there, but all the fall colors were there, although yellow was lacking a little.  And there was also some green left.

The above picture was taken with the Galaxy.  I still have the pictures on the camera, but haven’t uploaded or edited them yet.  It seems too easy to do everything with one hand held device, but I still want to work with a machine that was engineered specifically to take pictures.  And I hope to be taking and publishing more of them soon.

One More Round

I’m anticipating the next winter storm, which will literally be any minute now as I write these words around 10:45 PM.  In the meantime, here are some pictures from last week’s storm.  Most of the precipitation has been snowfall this season, but last week it came in the form of ice. Since early December, we have been averaging about one winter storm a week.   Although there have been more winter storms this year than the last several years combined, the cycle should end soon, as we are now in February.  The Phillies are reporting to spring training in Florida, and in two weeks will be playing their first exhibition game.  With the beginning of the baseball pre-season, spring can’t be far off.  The fact that baseball is being played somewhere has no effect on the weather, of course, but it does give hope.

In the meantime, these pictures tell the story, and it is about to be repeated.  I took them from our front porch, with lots of snow and on the ground and hanging from the trees.  All this looks pretty, but just makes getting around difficult and often hazardous.  And within an hour I will be dealing with more.  At least all the kids will love it, but even they may be getting tired of it, especially since they will now be going to school until the end of June.

The First Storm of the New Year

Since we were hit with another snowstorm last night, and the roads were still covered when I started my car this morning, I figured it was best to wait a while to head out.  When I was advised later that the roads were still bad for sedans like mine, I decided to stay in.  As of right now, we are still sitting in what looks like about six inches of snow, and although the roads are now somewhat clearer, we are still in a spell of arctic cold.  Every winter we get a few cold snaps that give me an idea of what it’s like living in Minnesota or Wisconsin, only there it is perpetual throughout the winter.  Back here, most of that snow should stay until Sunday, when we will have a brief warming period and some rain.  After that, it’s back to the single digits and teens.

I will probably be taking the car out soon to do some shopping, although I don’t intend to be out long.  The good thing is that now I am looking at a clear blue sky, rather than the all-day cloud cover yesterday, which was followed by the blizzard last night.  It does look like the conditions are now better.

I did want to get one picture of the snow today, and because of the conditions I didn’t want to go far. So I got this quick picture of the backyard.  I only got as close as the middle of the driveway, since my car is as far as I went to dig out of the snow.  From there, I took this picture.  I don’t like driving in snow, and I don’t like having to trudge through it, but I do like the way snow can make everything look nice.  And I’m glad I got this picture to capture the beauty of the snow after this latest storm.  The Weather Channel may be trying to establish a trend of naming every storm that comes through, but to me this is just the first snowstorm of 2014.