It was a very cold night, last night. The skies were partly-cloudy offering Earth the chance to send its feeble warmth drizzling into space. The day dawned clear, however, the first time we have seen the Sun in some time. Warm-colored rays were softly lighting the predawn sky. The land was wearing a coat of frost and open water a thin jacket of ice as I drove through the scene and air temperatures ran from seven to 13 degrees (F). There were several possible places to stop and take it all in but I’d time for only one and chose Baldwin Lake, Berea, Ohio. I shot as many photos as my cold-aching hands could bear before fleeing to my car to continue my travels. A warm and frigid morning it was!
dawn
All posts tagged dawn
While I generally don’t relish dragging myself out of bed early only to head off to work, some mornings are better than others. Recent changes in the weather made for beautiful scenes along my commuting routes yesterday and today. Golden sunlight filled dew-drenched grasses and weeds with diamonds. Ground fog lent a sense of soft mystery to this dawning day. And deer arrived with the morning.
It was a cold but beautiful day. As I left the house a little after dawn, the temperature was -1.7 degrees (F). The sky was an amazing shade of blue with the horizon showing pink all around. The fresh, fluffy snow sparkled. It was quiet. I packed my commuter items in the car but before leaving, brought out the camera I carry daily: my trusty Fuji FinePix S7000. In the cold, still air I did my best to capture some of the unusual color and dawning beauty of the day. The trees here all had tufts of snowy fluff on their branches.
The slightest movement or breath of wind caused the snow to collapse into a cloud and drift to the ground — I knew the scene would not last for long.
She Who Must Be Obeyed had suggested I shoot a couple more images of the piles of snow and ice that surround our house. One photo includes my car and shows it right next to a plow-piled mountain of snow easily larger than the Honda.
Up in the bare branches of the tree in our front yard may be seen dark dots –one of them red– which are birds assembling for their turn at the feeder. It is usual for us to see sparrows, blue jays, cardinals (the red dot), black-capped chickadees, gold finches, house finches, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers… they were all represented today.
The sky stayed mostly clear all day and it was refreshing to see the sun and not worry about how much more snow we would face in our travels.
This evening I stood on the indoor landing between our first and second floors admiring a beautiful sunset through the window. A jet trail illuminated against the dark sky inspired me to grab the camera again. I captured the trail and the sunset sky. Then I turned the camera to the southwest, still through the window. Any time, in recent weeks, when we have been blessed by clear evening skies, the planet Venus has shown like a brilliant diamond high above the horizon. There it was tonight.
It's only a few pixels in the digital image but there that diamond is, set against a deep blue velvet sky, floating over a beautiful pink sunset. The day ended as it had begun. It was cold but beautiful.