Baby, it’s cold outside

I woke up yesterday to fresh snow.  Yay!  I don’t know why I’m so excited for snow this year, usually I dread it.  Maybe it is because of my camera and new lens.  Maybe it’s because of my new coat…nah, not the coat, must be the camera and lens.  This is one of my favorite perspectives – up the trunk of the tree into the branches.  I love the cold blues of this shot, too.  I’ll have a series of these, so expect more over the next few days.

Aspen, the tree, not the city

I have an Aspen tree in one corner of my backyard.  I planted it several years ago as a bareroot tree, along with a catalpa and some flowering trees.  I got them in November of that year and the ground was frozen, it was pitch black outside, and they needed to be planted. 

Out I went with a shovel, but the ground was so hard, I couldn’t get the trees in very deep, so they were kind of planted at an angle in two short little rows.  There they sat, growing at an angle because I never got them replanted.  But you know what?  Trees are smart and they straightened themselves out. 

Most of the trees died over the years, but for the aspen, the catalpa and one of the flowering trees.  My goal this month is to replant the catalpa and the flowering tree and leave the aspen – thankfully the ground isn’t frozen yet.  I love the sound it makes when the wind blows through the aspen and I can hear it from my family room when the patio door is open.  Another aspen photo tomorrow.

This is another installment of November in black and white – a challenge at Springtree Road to post November photos in…black and white – click here for more info.

Another birch trunk

When I was shooting the birch trunks the other day I got a couple of shots that I really liked.  I couldn’t decide which to post, so I’m doing both.  This is the second, the first one is here.  What I like about this one is all the texture on the trunk with the peeling bark.

When I see birches…

Birches are one of my favorite trees.  I have two in the back corner of my yard by the fence, under which Buddy likes to dig holes so he can go play with the neighbor’s two dogs.  A fellow photo blogger, Elizabeth, posted a picture of some birches the other day – click here .  I had commented on her post that I had just been out in the yard filling in the latest hole that Buddy dug under the trees .  As I was filling in the hole I was looking at the birch bark, thinking I needed to go back inside for my camera to capture the tree trunk.  I forgot to do that. I also said that now it is going to look like I’m copying her if I post something similar.  So, while I was out taking photos of the trunk, I was very cognizant of how I was composing the shot to make sure it was different from Elizabeth’s.  I think I succeeded.

Crabapples

I took the photo of these crabapples at the office the other day.  I only got about six shots of the crabapples because the wind was blowing so hard, it was impossible to get a good shot.  Of those taken, this is the only shot that was in focus, and that was because I was holding the branch still with one hand while taking the shot with the other.