Welcome Winter

Do you know why I know it is winter?  Upon arriving at work this morning all our door locks were frozen!  We eventually got in- but not before I was seriously regretting leaving my gloves at home.  There's something about the first subzero temperatures that surprises me each winter, and this morning was no different.  I thought I didn't need gloves- and I was wrong.

Although my morning and evening commutes were draped with clouds, central Ohio was treated to a quite nice mid-day sunshine event.  As winter drags on, sunny scenes like this one will decrease as we plunge into the gray abyss that is winter here in Ohio.  It's hard to believe that this field will be warm and full of soybeans in only six months or so.

Tom

Snowflakes

Snowflakes have been on my list of things to photograph for quite some time. Their fragility, complexity, and uniqueness make we want to spend hours photographing every snowflake that ever fell. But it's just too darn cold to do that.

So why photograph snowflakes now? Yesterday evening, as I was getting into my black-interior 2003 Toyota Corolla, I noticed that a few perfect snowflakes had landed on the plastic elbow rest on my driver side door. DING DING DING. A bell or light, or something like that went off in my head. The photographic fever hit me, and I wouldn't be satisfied until I got a few decent shots of these wondrous parts of nature.

Tom

When Iguanas Drop from Trees.......

After hearing about Iguanas going into a temporary torpor in Florida from our recent cold snap, I wondered if I could find a map that showed what areas of the country are currently covered with snow. It's so snowy right now, that we could fly from New York City to Los Angeles without ever seeing bare ground until the last little bit of the flight.

Here's that video of non-native Iguanas dropping from the trees in southern Florida.






Tom

Back from the Land of Ice & Snow: Sky Watch Friday

Crap, it's 2010. When did that happen?

We must have missed that on our marathon holiday trip that started on Christmas Eve. Drive to Akron, stay with parents & brother, Fly to Maine through Detroit, stay with parents, siblings, & grandparents (12 people in all!) fly back to Akron via Detroit, stay with parents and brother. Drive back home. Finally, yes, I am back home, and it feels wonderful. Happy New Year.

Tom

And since I just realized it's Friday, and It's been months since I participated in the ultimate nature blog meme for everyone, "Sky Watch", and this picture works for that, happy Sky Watch!

Snowfall on the Presidential Range

 

This afternoon, Megan and I hiked to the summit of Mount Pleasant, near Bridgton Maine. A 1.8 mile hike that ascends over 1500 feet, the view from the top of the mountain is spectacular. To the west lies the Presidential Range of New Hampshire, most famous for Mount Washington, home to the world's worst weather. And today was no exception. We were high above the hills of Maine and hovering in the low forties, but across the way on top of these mountains, it was snowing. The high temperature for Mountain Washington today was a cool 20 degrees, and when I just checked the temperature at 6:19 p.m. Wednesday evening, it was down to 10 degrees with a -16 windchill.

From our vantage point, the mountains were shrouded in what looked like icy, snowy fog, which was quite a contrast to the valley below that was experiencing the peak of autumn.

Tom

Snow comes as Ice

I'm just waking up, and instead of inches of snow, it looks like we had inches of ice. Ohio State University, the biggest in the country, has even closed this morning. Looks like Megan won't have to go to work either, since Franklin County has declared a Level II snow emergency. Supposedly, the ice will soon change to snow this morning, and it looks like we'll receive maybe six inches today. The ice really throws a wrench into everything! But the real question is, will the Governor declare a weather emergency for state workers?

Tom

Winter Storm's a' Comin'

I always love these corny graphics that our local NBC station runs at their website.

Beginning at 10:00 pm this evening, Central Ohio and Southern Ohio are under a winter storm warning. I just read in our newspaper that before the storm is over sometime on Wednesday, we could get up to 9 inches. The national weather service is saying things like "travel could be very hazardous or impossible." Here is the official report.

Here in central Ohio, any more snow than about 8 inches can cripple the metro area. We're just not equipped to deal with this amount of snowfall, even though we can count on at least 2 storms a year. It snows just enough for the city of Columbus to need and have snow plows, but not enough to take care of a real snow storm. Fortunately, now that Megan and I live in the City of Worthington, our roads have been cleared of snow almost immediately after it falls.

About two weeks ago, Megan and I were somewhat sad that we hadn't had any real winter weather. Mary commented on my squirrel picture saying that it looked like we had snow. We got about 6 inches, and it was great. It almost had all melted, and now we're in for more. I got a few good shots of winter, but I'm not ready for it to be over. Bring it on.



Tom

In the Land of Snow

Megan and I safely arrived in Munroe Falls, Ohio last night, driving up from Columbus along interstate 71 in the wind and snow. It was slow going, and our normal 2 hour trip took 3, and we counted no less than four cars that had simply run off the road and spun out in the ditch or were caught in the safety wire in the median that prevents head on collisions. Most still had their lights on- I can't say I didn't feel sorry for the people who had just not been able to stay on the road. Perhaps they were driving too fast, maybe they were cut off, you just never know. It must be a horrible feeling- stuck in the snow in the middle of rural Ohio,waiting for the highway patrol officer and trying to come up with an explanation of just how your car wound up that way. By the time we reached Akron, the snow had subsided, and the roads were wet but mostly free of ice. We hunkered down at my parent's house, where I grew up. We slept well and awoke to snow-lots of snow, something that we are just not simply used to this winter. In Columbus, we've only had about four inches of snow-we seem to have gotten mostly rain recently, and a quick look on Dispatch.com reveals that Columbus isn't getting any snow, just freezing rain and/or rain.

But here in Summit County, it is coming down at about an inch an hour- We've delayed the baby shower until tomorrow, and we'll just enjoy a day in the house with family. Maybe I'll even venture outside to get a few photographs. Let it snow!

Tom

Our Thanksgiving in Maine & Sky Watch Friday

Megan and I decided to go to Maine for thanksgiving this year to be with her family and we had fun. We woke up at 3:30 on Thanksgiving morning to get ready for our 5:50 flight. As we were in the air somewhere between Columbus, Ohio and John F. Kennedy Airport, I captured the first light above this city. Would it not be cool if someone could identify this locale? I guess I could take a look at our flight route that day on flightview, and look at the time the photo was taken, and figure it out. I should do that.
With a quick stop in JFK, we left to go to Maine. We arrived about little pond at noon. Since Maine is so far east, the sun goes down very early there. The sun is clearly behind the trees here, but it was only 4:08 p.m. Amazing? By 5:00 it is pitch black.



And as you can see, it has been plenty cold in Maine already this season, and there was about an inch of ice on the pond when we arrived, but no snow on the ground.

Thanksgiving was served and we had a mighty feast. Everyone, including Dublin, wanted a piece.



What a great meal. But alas, we were tired, having been up since 3:30, and the early sunset makes it seem that much later.



So it was off to bed. What would the next day bring?

Well, the next morning everything was quite frosty. I managed to take a picture of this snail and some lichens with my new panasonic LX8 camera that I picked up at at Big Lots for under 100 bucks. Finally, I have a pocketable camera.




While I was taking these shots, Megan and her parents donned their blaze orange to make a trip down to the outlet of Little Pond to see if Beavers had blocked the flow of water.



The two ladies and myself walked while Megan's dad drove their Expedition. Although Beavers had not dammed the outlet, the chicken wire installed by the road crew to deter beavers had actually collected debris, so Kate and Glen went at it with their garden tools, eventually removing the grate.



There were plenty of fresh beaver cuts on the alders however, they had been active on little pond this fall.



In this area of the pond, there is plenty of winterberry, a member of the holly family whose bright red fruits really pop on a gray day.



After clearing the culvert, Kate decided to check out the other side of the pipe. Apparently, she found some debris blocking the stream on that side of the road as well. Here she balances precariously attempting to pull out some clear plastic, and endeavor at which she was ultimately successful.



Just after we were done clearing the stream, it began to snow. How perfect for the day after Thanksgiving. The pond, bog, and stream was quickly blanketed with white.



On our way down, we noticed tons of trash alongside the road. On our way back to the house, we decided to pick that trash up and toss it in the expedition as Glen drove it along the berm.




When everything had been picked up, the back of the Expedition was full of roadside waste.



Our jobs being done, it was time for fun. I challenged Megan to a snowflake-catching-with-your mouth- contest. I'm not sure who won.




Still following? Were still on Friday the day after thanksgiving. In the afternoon it was time to go down to the Dentist's office (glen, my father in law, is a denist) to have my new mouth guard /bite plain thing made. I didn't capture that part, but I did take a picture of Megan's belly at the office. Amazing that we will soon be parents. It is very real though, as I can even now feel the baby kick. Megan says that the baby can kick hard enough to make here shirt move.



After the dentist, we stopped at a few stores and then it was back to Little Pond. The snow had stopped, but it really changed the landscape at the pond. The gray afternoon was almost totally devoid of color, really creating an interesting mood and I was able to capture images unlike any others I had taken there before.



And that is a brief look at the first day and half of our trip to Maine. We were there for 24 more hours, and I'll have more photos soon.

Tom

P.S. I almost forgot- for more Sky Watch images, go here.

The Blizzard of 2008- Live Camera Compilation

Since it is dark and now the camera is offline, I made a little compilation video of the day. It was a crazy day. All in all, Megan says we received about 20 inches of snow here in Columbus in about 30 hours or so. We just aren't used to snowfalls like this.

We are headed to Florida tomorrow- However, I'm sick. Megan, being a certified nurse midwife, has diagnosed me with Influenza! Doesn't that suck? I've had a fever for about 20 hours now, maxing out at 101.7 degrees last night about 1 a.m. Needless to say, I'm going to have to suck it up tomorrow for our flight to Punta Gorda, and I may not be quite as adventurous on the trip as I would have liked. Luckily, it isn't a stomach virus. Just "general malaise" (really, that's what it says in the book,) with "unproductive cough" and fever. We're flying back next Saturday, so hopefully that will give me plenty of time to recover. Still, I'll be trying to get great shots of Florida, so check back tomorrow and Monday for images of Sanibel Island. I've never been there, and i'm really looking forward to this trip.

Tom

Live Blizzard Cam

Florida, Here We Come

Our bags are packed, and Megan and I will be heading to Punta Gorda and then Sanibel island tomorrow. I'm bring the laptop, so check back for our travel adventures. It should be very interesting trying to fly out in snow. I hope our plane can get out, but fortunately, since Skybus flies to very small, uncongested airports, our chances of a cancellation are slim, I hope. For those of you not from Ohio, Columbus, where Megan and I live, is the starred city in the middle of the state. Hunker down, the snow is coming. And if we're lucky, I'll be able to start posting images from Florida tomorrow. Yes!

Ridiculous Snow Photograph from Otisfield, Maine

My in-laws, Kate and Glenn, live in the foothills of the White Mountains in western Maine at a place called Little Pond. They've had a ridiculous amount of snow fall there this winter, and yesterday another 14 inches fell on top of the four and a half feet of snow that was already on the ground. What do you do with all of that snow? Well, one thing, you have to keep it off your roof. How do you do that? You get a metal roof so the snow slides off, and you also invest in a good roof rake. Once you rake all that snow off the roof, it has to pile up somewhere.

This picture is real. I still can't believe it. Glenn is not a small man by any means. In fact, he makes me look tiny. He's 6 feet tall, but in this picture, he really is dwarfed by this massive snow pile. Can you imagine how long it will take four and half feet of snow to melt? And the snow piles there just around the house are 8-10 feet tall, those might still be there when Megan and I visit in May. I guess this is why they say they have "mud season" up in Maine instead of a true spring.

Fortunately, the whole family, including Megan and I are headed to Florida on Saturday. For my in laws, it will surely be a great escape from the massive snow fort that is their house.

Tom

Maine, Day #4

It is hard to believe that it was only one week ago that I took these pictures. Two feet of snow was on the ground in Maine. Today, Columbus hit a record high temperature for the day somewhere in the upper sixties!

Day four in Maine was another day of snow. A look out the window was gray, and all I could see was more snow coming down. Plenty of snow. Probably eight more inches over night. Another day to stay in and let it snow.

What to do on a day like this? Megan decided to brush her dog, Jazz.

Quite a nice looking golden if I do say so myself.



Jazz didn't like being brushed, but afterwards, everyone looked like they were quite happy.



It wasn't until the late afternoon that the snow let up, and the sun peeked through the clouds for a few minutes and we were able to enjoy the Maine woods and the ice of little pond.



Megan's brother Ben and his friend Gardner checked out the ice the day before, and everything looked safe.

Megan's dad Glenn ventured out with Dublin and Murphy, the resident chocolate labs of little pond.



Meanwhile, Gardner attempted to start a fire. This intrigued me.



Apparently, since the heat goes upward, the ice doesn't melt. But it does melt a little bit. I'm wondering how long it would take for the fire to eventually melt through?



Gardner pointed out that this one fire that you didn't have to worry about putting out!



A look up to the house, and I was ready to go in. The sun sets about 4:45 where Megan's parents were, and I was ready for the fire.



Up at the house, looking west towards the pond. You can see docking stored for the winter on the bog. Little Pond and the surrounding Oxford Hills Region of western Maine is a fantastic place. It is off the beaten path, not readily visited by droves of tourists, and it is a true slice of what life is like in rural New England. I'm not sure if I would want to live here year round, but I will hopefully be visiting for years to come. I hope you enjoyed the trip! Megan and I will be back in May, so be ready for more shots of the Little Pond in a few months. Meanwhile, I'll have plenty of interesting pictures of Ohio and beyond in the upcoming days.

Happy blogging,

Tom

Maine, Day #3

The great thing about Maine, and I'm sure most parts of the country are like this too, is that when it snows there, it really snows hard and heavy. But usually the next day the clouds leave and the skies open up and reveal a beautiful day. Here in Ohio, it is mostly gray all winter, so having bright, sunny, and snowy days in Maine was special.

So for day three in Maine, I woke up about 8:30 and peered out the window. The moon was still in the sky, but everything looked good for a wonderful day.



Megan had a cold, so I decided to head out on snowshoes to see what I could see at Little Pond.



Down the driveway and down into the balsam fir forest I went. American beech trees still cling to their leaves.



Snow shoeing was great fun, and it is quite a work out. It also helps you traverse through the 20 or so inches of snow on the ground fairly efficiently. I made my way through the forest, out to little pond road on the northwest end of the property. I followed the abandoned little pond road (it is still in the delorme atlas!) down to the bog of little pond. The typical hummocky micro-topgraphy really stood out well in the snow.



It was here where I had the please to watch and photograph a mature male pine grosbeak for about thirty minutes. It was feasting on the fruits of the shrubs in the bog.





Getting fairly tired and cold by this point, I decided to take a shortcut back to the house--through the bog and fen. It was tough, but as I made it out up onto solid ground, I was only a few minutes from the house. A nice paper birch caught my eye. This is one deciduous tree that is not native to Ohio, but at little pond, it is common.



On my way back to the house, I had to pass the feeding station. Why not try to get a few more shots of birds? I noticed a white pine branch above me. The light was magnificent, and every few minutes, a black-capped chickadee would land there before dropping down to the feeder. I metered carefully, used my ski pole for a monopod, and got lucky to get this shot.

Maine, Day #2

Day two in Maine was a snow day. Dark clouds, all day, and plenty of snow. By evening, we had 8 more inches, making about twenty or so inches on the ground. It was a day to stay inside and enjoy the fire. I did take this shot out the window across to the other side of the pond.


All that snow has to come from somewhere, right?


Day three will be tomorrow, with plenty of pine grosbeak photos!

Tom

Winter in Maine- Day 1

Megan's parents live in rural western Maine. The towns near them are quite tiny and fairly provincial, and they live five miles or so outside of the town center. When the original owner built the house in which they now live in the early 1990's, the house wasn't even on the electric grid! It was powered by a generator and heated and lit with propane. Now, the Woods' house on little pond is on the grid, but the place has kept its rural charm.

One of the greatest things that has happened to Megan and I is Skybus Airlines. We can fly to Portsmouth New Hampshire for literally dollars, rent a car, and drive just under two hours to get to Little Pond.



Little did we know that below these clouds would be a winter wonderland.



Once on the ground at New Hampshire, we picked up the rental car and drove to Maine. New fallen snow coated everything, and our drive was nice and sunny. When you start seeing snow plows and logging trucks, you know you are in rural Maine.



Little Pond sits just to the left of this road which is Maine State Route 117. We turned into the driveway, and what a sight it was! The snow was piled up everywhere.



Once we arrived, I immediately started taking pictures. I grabbed the telephoto lens and shot from the deck out across the 26 acre frozen and snow covered pond. The small pine trees in the foreground are black spruce growing in the sphagnum bog, while the taller trees are mostly white pine.



A quick trip out to the bird feeding station revealed what I was expecting. Dozens of black-capped chickadees and several red-breasted nuthatches.



Later on in the day, a male hairy woodpecker visited the feeding station.



Later on in the day, this tree ornament caught my eye.



What a great first day in Maine. Smooth travel, wonderful scenery, and it was great to see Megan's parents and brother. And what better way to end a day than with a wonderful meal grilled on the stove top by Megan's brother Mike?



Be sure to stop back for days two, three, and four.

Happy New Year,

Tom