Tag: Nature

Crocus?

I’m a little worried that my crocus didn’t make it through the winter this year. I’m seeing the hyacinths coming up, same with the daffodils, but so far, I haven’t seen any signs of my crocus. These in particular were my favorite last year, so I’ll be sad if they don’t come up again.

Last Bubble Of The Season

We may still get snow. Maybe even some ice. Considering the weather this last year, either wouldn’t surprise me at all. What we won’t be seeing again, or at least I hope we won’t as green things are starting to poke out of the ground, are the crazy low temps required for me to be able to attempt another round of frozen bubble photos this season. That isn’t a bad thing and I’m so not complaining about that at all.

It would be nice if I didn’t have to bump up the temperature in the house just to be able to go work in the basement without needing 5 layers of clothes. Or work in the garage without the risk of frostbite.

I had planned on being able to do some of my work from the garage, but there has been no way to spend more than the 20 seconds it takes to run in there to grab something before sprinting back into the house because it has been so cold. Even on the warmer days, it isn’t comfortable for more than a few minutes.

My basement space has now become a full on tool shop. I think almost every single tool we own is now crowding up what little space was open in the basement, which is going to make working a little interesting. At least I’m not constantly running up and down the stairs all day.

Standing Out In A Crowd

I have to make yet another trip to the store today. This time, it wasn’t my fault.

I was putting together my table saw stand yesterday, managing to do a whole lot of guessing because the instructions were absolute crap and would have about the same understanding even if I were reading it in the other languages, getting my first project wound because I didn’t have the right tool to hold a nearly microscopic lock nut in place while tightening and having the pliers slip and pinch the hell out of my finger (said wound is now an ugly blood blister in the most inconvenient place on my finger of my dominant hand and felt like a cross between a bad cut and a burn it was so sensitive), only to find out when it was all done that the bolts provided to actually attach a saw to the stand were too big.

This is for a stand that is the same brand as the saw and every comment I found said that it works with my saw. Well, it does. Technically. Because it fits the stand and is within the weight tolerance. I just need different bolts. FUN!

This means that I might, just might, be able to actually do something building like later today. Maybe. And very, very carefully. With fingers and toes crossed that the project wound I got yesterday is the worst I’ll see for this entire project. Because… power tools and saws.

While I sit over here and whine about stupid instructions, wrong bolts, and manufacturers not providing the tools for weird specialty parts, please enjoy some of the last snowy pictures I have. I doubt I’ll have many more past the ones I’ve already taken. I’m so ready to be done being cold.

Drip

Yesterday, I got the majority of the materials I had planned to get to start the first part of building the recessed area in my craft room. Unfortunately, the store we went to didn’t have enough of one of the boards I needed, so I’m off to a different store today to get the rest. Grateful to every lucky star out there that the pieces they were short on weren’t the pieces we had to rent a truck to haul home.

I’m still waiting on one thing I ordered before I can actually get started, but that should be here in the next day or so. The waiting part sucks, but I’m getting there.

Beautiful Broken Imperfection

This one really stuck out to me. The fact that it was this lone snowflake caught in that space. That it was either broken or partly melted or some combination. That it was determinedly hanging on. That even imperfect, it was still amazingly beautiful. To me, it is one of those images that can hold so much meaning beyond just being a pretty picture.

Oh So Flaky!

I wasn’t going to go out. It was still stupidly cold. But… it was flurrying a bit and those flakes were the perfect kind to try and get actual snowflakes and the sun was out a bit and… of course I went out.

It really was kind of perfect conditions to get snowflake shots. The snow was so light and fluffy, I could scoop some of it up and still maintain the flake shapes. That kind of snow isn’t all that common here as our tends to be more wet and sticky.

I froze my butt and my fingers off, but dammit! I got snowflake pictures!

 

Visit From Jack Frost

Under normal circumstances, there isn’t any glass in this house that manages to form ice crystals. Mostly because everything is well insulated and the indoor temps are just too much for the ice to overcome.

Apparently that isn’t the case today with our front glass storm door.

I think it must be in part because Hubby was in and out of that door last night causing it to fog up when he was going to shovel the driveway and it just never got warmed back up after that. Whatever it was, when I went to open it this morning to look out front, there was no seeing out front. Just seeing an iced over door with a load of really pretty ice crystals clustering at the bottom.

Considering the thermometer was registering -9 this morning, it really isn’t all that surprising. Thankfully, we have finally broken back into the positive digits for the first time in more than 24 hours.

So far, we’ve been really lucky and haven’t been hit by any of the rolling blackouts that were a potential around here. I have a friend in another state that got hit by one that was only supposed to last maybe 30 minutes and was without power for over 2 hours and ended up with a frozen water pipe. And that was only one of the MANY times she ended up without power yesterday.

Our downtown voluntarily went dark for the night and almost every school in the area is closed today, even for virtual, both because of the weather and in an effort to not put a strain on the power grid. It’s kind of wild what’s going on right now.

I hope you all are staying in, staying safe, and staying warm where it is cold!

Feathered Ice

Of all the photos I got the other day, this is probably one of the best at the almost fully frozen stage. Almost all of the ones I took started to get too blurry by that point because of the transparency of the bubbles and the angle I was at.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of seeing all the different types of patterning that these display.

Frozen Soap Bubble

Yesterday’s attempt at getting some frozen bubble shots was pretty successful and I learned a few new things.

One of the bigger things is that I really need to be wearing my reading glasses when I’m taking photos anymore. I struggle more and more often to see if I’m actually in focus or I have to rely on the autofocus, which doesn’t always give me what I want. This is especially true if I’m using my viewing screen to frame my shot. Wearing glasses is still a long way from perfect or even from where I used to be, but it gets me a whole lot closer than I’ve been getting lately.

When it comes to doing the bubble photos, I’ve also learned that the angle you take these from is critically important and I don’t always get that right. One is the fact that you have to have the light hit it in a way to bring contrast to those crystal structures or you just don’t see them well.

The other issue on angle is the fact that these are transparent and as they freeze, you will get the crystal structures on the back overlapping with the ones on the front, which can make the whole thing look blurry. Many of the ones I tried to take yesterday didn’t look that great once they were fully frozen, but the partially frozen ones looked great. So you have to be at an angle to get the crystal structures to pop, but mainly the ones only on the front side of the bubble, which can be really tricky.

I also learned that I pulled off some of my best images from the videos I tried, but those files aren’t nearly as good a quality as a normal photo, so that is a good and a bad thing.

There are several really good ones I want to share over the next couple of days, but this one is probably one of my favorites (though I do have a few that come close for different reasons). This one is up there because it is one of the best at really showcasing those crystal patterns as they begin to form.

In some ways, I wish we had more days where I could practice, but… nope! It has to be way too cold to play, so I think I’ll be good with the once or twice a year opportunities.

Frozen Bubble Time!

The conditions today were just almost perfect for playing with bubbles. It was just a tiny bit on the breezy side and I had way too many pop before they could fully freeze, but I was still able to get some great shots. I also tried doing a video for the first time.

Hopefully the video works. I think there is an HD option when viewing, but it may show a lower quality so be sure to check if it doesn’t look crisp.

Snow Coated

I really should be getting outside to try for more frozen bubble shots, but I’m not sure that is going to happen today.

As is typical for me, cake mode is followed by crash mode and my energy and motivation levels are near zero today. The one thing I’d like to try and get done is to get the table base screwed together. My bits showed up the other day and I’ve been wanting to get to this, but cake got in the way.

After that, I have no clue if I’ll have the motivation to do much else, let alone bundle up to go out in the cold. That and it is looking a bit too breezy for bubbles today so I don’t know that it would even be worth the effort.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and get a burst of energy this afternoon and get out anyway. We are still going to be seeing single digit temps for a few more days, so I have time to get back to the bubbles even if I don’t get to it today.

Frosted World

I had to brave the bitterly cold temps yesterday to get a couple of much needed things to work on BG’s cake. I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to get some photos of the amazing effect the snow was having on the trees, so I drug my camera along with me.

The roads were absolute crap and the drive was very slow, but it was absolutely beautiful. I’m so glad I got out and got the few shots I did as the trees are no longer coated today. The temps are staying at what feels like vaccine storage levels (yes, I know it isn’t REALLY that cold) for several more days and we have a chance of snow every day. It feels like mother nature decided to give us all the winter we hadn’t really gotten so far all at once now.

I’m in full on cake mode today because I have to have this done by tomorrow afternoon. The cake is already baked and the icing is ready to go. I have to make up the fondant and start assembling today. Since I’m down to only being allowed to make this one cake every year, I’m going to have as much fun as possible working on it.