Photo 365 #97: The natural world

November 12, 20149 Comments

Living in a rural area is nothing if not fantastic for capturing wonderful moments in the life cycle of nature. As evidenced by my deep and abiding love for skyscapes, I’ve got no shortage of inspiration for nature-based images. And since it’s hard for me to choose just one, here are several!

Beautiful…and treacherous.

Our yard is littered with pine cones.

“Come into my chamber,” said the spider to the fly.

Just another beautiful summer day.

Tasty harvest. 🙂

This is completely unacceptable at this point in the year.

These are only a handful of the nearly two thousand pictures I’ve taken of the world around me this year alone. I feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

Photo Friday: Minimalist

November 7, 20143 Comments

IMG_20131205_112005 I checked my calendar this morning and realized that – horror of horrors! – Charnele and I are out of prompts for our Photo Friday feature.

Whoops.

But then I saw that this week’s photo challenge is all about minimalism, and guess what? I just happen to have something that fits the bill. It’s a picture of the frozen condensation on my bathroom window one morning last winter. Sadly, I awoke to find condensation on the inside of the windows in our new house this morning, and it’s not even that cold yet (although we did finally break down and turn on the heat yesterday).

I hate to think what it’ll be like in another month or so when winter is in full swing.

The change is amazing

March 10, 201426 Comments

From this:

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A post shared by Kay Kauffman (@kaysiewrites)

To this:

Snow boats

October 23, 201318 Comments

It snowed here yesterday. October is far too early for snow, in my opinion. If you ask me, the first – and last – snowfall should occur on December 24. It should hang around for Christmas, but then it needs to vamoose on December 26 so as not to interfere with my travel plans.

Clearly I live in the wrong state. Sadly, my dreams of wintering somewhere more tropical are not likely to come true any time soon.

This little burst of winter got me thinking, though, about winters past. I didn’t always hate the snow and the cold. When I was a kid, I used to relish them. I loved sledding and ice skating and building snow forts. I loved walking atop the frozen snow in my neighbors’ yards on my way to and from school, my stomach quivering as I wondered how long it would be before I plunged ankle-deep into a frosty hole.

Winter in Iowa

March 5, 2013March 10, 20139 Comments

Snow Cat (Photo credit: clickclique)

I’ve had it with winter. Specifically, I’ve had it with all the white crap Mother Nature keeps dumping on us. I nearly got stuck at work yesterday because the city does such a lousy job clearing the streets, and the same thing happened again today. After narrowly avoiding the embarrassment of having to ask my boss to give me a push, what happened? I came home and promptly got stuck in the mouth of my driveway, with the back end of my van sticking out into our very narrow street.

I was stuck so tight that after the kids and I tried to get out for about ten minutes, I went across the street and asked the neighbor for help (Seymour wasn’t home yet). It took the two of us a good half hour and maybe a little more to get my van free. The city I live in (yes, I know, it’s a small town, but that’s how we refer to our municipal government) doesn’t do any better when it comes to cleaning streets than the city I work in. So in short, I’ve had it with winter.

Now, don’t get me wrong. When the sun shines on newly fallen snow and it sparkles like a thousand diamonds, I love it as much as the next person. I appreciate the beauty of snow. However, I hate dealing with it. I hate driving in it. I hate shoveling it. I hate cleaning it off of my car.

But at times like these, I often think of a joke my dad shared with me once. It’s about winter in Iowa and, given the trials I’ve had with the snow today and the fact that it was three years ago today that I lost him, this seems like a good time to share it again. I’ve posted it before, but here it is again in all its snowy glory:

Dear Diary. . .