Friday Shoot-Out: Town Plaza

Welcome to my 100th post!  This week's shootout topic was suggested by Redlan at Redlan's Web of Arts.  This sure was one of the most challenging for me.  Vineland is a huge, spreadout town of farmland and trees.  (Except for downtown Vineland which is rows of old stores).  So, I racked my brain to try to find an angle to fit the assignment.  I decided to go with my apartment complex. 

Here is a big mountain of snow in my parking lot.  There are many of these all through the complex.  We will probably be staring at snow until June!!

This is a wall of snow in the parking lot where I work.  I think I've seen enough snow to last me four more winters!

This winter has led to some massive icicles.  Those things look deadly!

And, finally, outside my back door, I was finally able to get a shot of a cardinal in the snow.

I hope you enjoyed!!

Winter Wonderland Take 3

Hello blogger friends!  I am home today thanks to the snow taking the East coast hostage.  I thought I'd share some of the pictures of this wintry blast.  As some of you have already seen, icicles tend to form off of the roof of my balcony and I love to take pictures of them. 

One of my cats, Winston, was looking out the back door at the snow and the birds flying to the branches above.  I let him step out onto the balcony so he could feel the snow.  He did not really like the coldness on his paw pads and came right back in the house, but I thought the paw prints were very cute!  I also captured some bird prints. 

Who among us who like to take pictures would not want to capture a richly red cardinal amongst the white white snow?  The cardinal must have known this because everytime I grabbed my camera, he flew away!  I was able to capture him somewhat.

Also, for those of you who saw my last Friday Shoot Out, you saw my windchimes.  Well, this wintry blast has even coated them in snow.

I hope some of you are in a warmer climate!  For those of you experiencing this "white wash" with me, I hope you are staying safe and if you have to go out, driving carefully!

(I am going to start putting all my poetry on my poetry blog at spiritsoflenapoetry, in case you miss my photo and a poem.)

Friday Shoot-Out--Christmas Weather

This was a cool assignment from Emma at http://wehrmans.blogspot.com/.

Snow and cold have become linked in the universal unconscious for Christmas. It is one of our most salient archetypes. I guess we all love the feeling of being in a warm house, sipping hot chocolate, and sitting by the fire as the lights twinkle on the tree while, outside, there is a blizzard raging on the other side of the door. When you think about it, this is a good metaphor for spirituality. The outside may be chaotic but inside is calm.

My pictures were taken right outside my patio door. The icicles were an amazing surprise. The way the light came through them was just amazing. If I had more photographic talent, I would have really captured the light better. For the bird shots, I just liked the contrast of a bird in the snow. These were actually taken last year, since we have not gotten a major snowing (major snowing? not sure it is an actual phrase, but I like it!) yet this year. Today was one of the first days that it was really cold--like walking into a meat locker when you go outside! I am a little jealous of those of you in the warmer climes.

Hope you enjoy!