CONSWORLD

Snowing again? Yes, this is spring, warm one day and snowing the next.  

When I was a child, my mother sang to me about a happy robin coming in the spring.

Though I was happy to see this robin a couple of days ago, I’m not sure the robin was happy about all the melting snow about.

The snow lasted a couple of cold days, but it’s warmer now and the snow is gone except in areas of deep shade.

This is April in Consworld, snow and melt, cold nights and warm bright days, anticipation in every twig and species, and spring fever in me.

I want to photograph the snow showers and melt, the winterbuds unfolding, and the early wildflowers. I want to walk along the creek and around the ponds in the mornings looking for spring birds and landscape views to capture. I don’t want to do any work. I want to play.

This week’s storm dumped 2 feet of snow on us and knocked out power at my house for over 12 hours. It snowed all day and night on Tuesday, a heavy wet snow that bent and broke trees and power lines. One neighborhood some miles from here is still without power. The temperatures are warm, though, so the white blanket is quickly melting. This shot of Lions Head was taken a few minutes after 6 am Wednesday with the canon 30d 28-135mm lens at 28mm and f8. Shutter speed was 1/13 second. I used a tripod and mirror lockup.

I had my first hummingbird sighting today and shot a few quick pics of her near my feeder. Nearly noon, the light was not perfect, but I’ll have a look at those shots later and perhaps post one.

I went to visit my good friends, the Pattersons, a couple of days ago. ‘Twas a good thing I had my camera along, for this group of three perfect pasques is quite a rare thing this year. With all the snow and freezing rains we’ve had, many of the pasques have brown frostbite on the petals. These three beauties must have emerged at just the right moment between the snows. We had snow again last night, so I wonder how they are looking now. Many thanks to the Pattersons for allowing me to crawl around on their ground shooting the flowers.

The broadtail hummingbirds should be coming any day now. I’ve read reports of a few sightings in the area. My feeders have come out of storage and are washed and ready. My two year old fuchsia is blooming in the greenhouse and ready to be hung outside - but only during the day, the nights are still too cold for it. I’m hoping my next post will include my first hummer pic of the year.

“Pasques at the Patterson’s” was shot with Canon 30D, 60 mm lens, 1/125 second at f/8 from about 18 inches away.

Spring Greetings!

I shot this photo of a pasque flower Monday, two days ago. Yesterday it was covered with few inches of snow. Much of the snow melted yesterday afternoon but high winds were blowing snow around and I stayed in. This morning, Wednesday, it’s 17 degrees F and I’m reading that we may get as much as a foot of snow on Friday.

I’ll keep looking for these beautiful little fuzzy wildflowers between snows for the next few weeks. For those of you who don’t know these flowers, they are quite small (2 to 4 inches tall) members of the buttercup family. This was shot from ground level (read: wet knees and elbows) with Canon 30D and 60 mm lens from about 20 inches.

The first hummingbirds should be on their way soon. You know what I’ll be shooting for then.