Guest Blogger’s Response to Yesterday’s Waiting for Spring Post

Okay Aunt Bobbie (the one who gave Anna the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls). Bobbie saw my almost Spring post of the flowering pear trees and then sent me a photo for the blog today. YIKES!

I was so hopeful. Just when I was thinking of how the earth will warm up and the buds and blossoms will burst. I was counting the days until Spring, ready for the winter to be OVER!

I love it when someone is inspired by my photos on the blog, though. Even if it is a snow photos. Well more that just any snow photo.

21 inches of snow in Kansas City in a week!!!

(Chicago John, this one is for YOU, too!) For everyone shoveling and plowing and hopeful that it will just all go away….and SOON.

(Rob, you must be so glad you moved out of Northern Illinois to Florida this year. Kristin, how was Hawaii? Sue, you enjoying Spring training in Bradenton?)

Thanks Bobbie for the photo today. Where are the crocus?

A p.s. to Aunt Bobbie’s picture

Two more responses, this time from faithful blog reader ROB

writes to

Ruth,

After seeing your blog I wanted to share these photos. The first photo is from a traffic cam showing my “old” office in the background and then I immediately went out and shot (with my trusty iPhone) the photo out our back yard, probably less than 2 minutes apart. I sent these back to my old office staff just to show them the “real reason” I moved from Northern Illinois…just in case someone really needed proof. Needless to say I got varied comments. Thanks again for challenging all to see life through “a different lens”.

Love ya,

Rob

Brrrrrr.

Reminds me of a song that my Music Monday Maestro might find….

“Button up your overcoat, when the winds are free. Take good care of yourself, you belong to me.”

In Just One Word

I Drove Home in a Snow Globe

and of course, returned to the park. It’s just blocks from my house. And the light was low, the visibility poor. A stark and magnificent beauty in the midst of the storm.

What were the trees doing today? One day winter, one day Spring, one day freezing and dark, one day a warm sun but a chill in the wind. I wanted to see the branches outlined in snow. The dark branches highlighted with the new fallen snow. Actually, falling snow.

I was rewarded with a stunning winter scene, just before dusk.

It had started to snow while I was at school. The sky heavy and gray. Big big flakes. Melting on the street as it was 38 degrees. I drove home in a snow globe.

Oh yes, today I got out of the car, scared off a squirrel and photographed the snowy park bench and my favorite tree. The sounds muffled by the new snow, barely sticking to the road but highlighting the curved lines.

these are unretouched color photographs

Two roads diverged….

Home to tea. Homemade spaghetti and cheese, steamed broccoli. Leftover fortune cookie and a mandarin orange. Winter.

Tree in Snow, Tree in Sun

Another in my winter tree series. Actually I drove through the park today and the snow is gone. See the tree below.

I wanted to post the trees in silhouette, though and the sinking sun behind the trunk.

It ‘s the warmth of the sun on the snow that appeals to me.

My drives through the park after school on my way home have help me appreciate the beauty of the winter.

A different tree but this is the angle of the sun at the time I was driving into the entrance of Highland Park.

Today on the way home, the car thermometer read 63 degrees. Here’s what my trip into the park yielded Monday afternoon. Find the car to check the scale of the tree. Because of the mottled peeled bark, I believe it’s a giant sycamore. Long shadows and blue sky with pretty clouds made it feel like April.

Dog Walker and a Snowy Tree

Scroll down for the crop with the dog walker and his dogs in the distance. Didn’t see him when I shot the photo.

Another color photograph that looks black and white. Shot with a EF Canon 50mm 1.2L Lens- 500 ISO f/16, 125 shutter. Wish I had tried a few more settings at the time but wanted to get home.

Thursday the temperature is to be in the 50’s. Unusual fluctuation- one day twenties and snow and ice, another day about zero, now up to sixty?

Something feels off.

Old Trees New Trees on a Winter Path

After school I drove into Highland Park, right near my home. I’d taken a series of black and white photos for a film class years ago in this same spot and still have a print on my wall.

With the new snow today, I thought it might look interesting but the light was low and the sky thick and gray.

Found some new trees planted along the path, though.

I plan to return in the Spring.

There weren’t many dog walkers or walkers or runners or any activity in the park. The Super Playground deserted and covered with snow and ice. No bicycles. The fountain turned off. The reservoir a layer of ice. The sounds muffled with the snow, but barely a car driving around the circle today.

It’s in color but almost looks black and white.

Got Bridges?

Just a few. Here are some bridges that cross the Allegheny River. Since I showed the one closed yesterday, it seemed to make sense to post a shot of more bridges.

If you want to read about Pittsburgh Bridges, click here .

Taken from Mount Washington, Duquesne Incline observation deck just last week.

And the Tenth Street Bridge in the Tom Cruise movie (Jack Reacher) isn’t in this shot but here

It’s Cold Outside!

This is the first meal I ate in Zagreb when I visited Matty. I must have had the spoon in my hand when I took the photo?

Thought this bowl of hot soup looked inviting for this way below freezing January night. I shot all those vacation pics with a Canon 20D and I miss that camera. The shutter eventually failed and I even had it repaired but it failed again. I just liked that camera.

Family of Four Walking at Alum Creek Dam

Hard to see them in the first photo.

My daughter -in- law was driving and I was the passenger. Shot from a moving van. They are walking above the Alum Creek Reservoir.

Oh there they are!

The Mill on a Winter Night 2012

I have posted photographs of the mill at night before, and in the winter the leaves are off the trees so I can get a nice shot from West Mifflin hill, near VistaView Street. I think there are four Christmas light decorations on it this time.

This photo is looking across the Monongahela River to Braddock.

Many family members of blog followers have worked in the mills of Pittsburgh. This is the last mill.

Click to see the earlier view from the blog in April 2010. I liked reading that post because my friend Dorothy H. wrote a comment on the blog post about a poem she wrote in response to another mill photo I took. The mill is endlessly fascinating to me, the smoke always different shapes. The cloud cover affecting the light at night. The snow. The darkness.

I remember a class in photography suggested to return to the same subject, a different season, a different time of day, but the same location. Close to it.

Guess I am doing that assignment again and again.

and this view is farther up the hill, with the naked trees on the right.