FMTSO: Winter in My Town

Except for one cold and snowy week in early December, I think this must have been the most ‘unphotogenic’ winter in my blogging history. Since then (and still) it’s been constantly rainy and gray. I’ve hardly been out except for necessary grocery shopping; and the camera has been left at home on most of those occasions.

This is the only recent outdoors photo I have to offer – and even that was taken looking out from a window:

View from the Abecita Art Museum a week ago, overlooking a parking lot adjoining a shopping center (not all under one roof but spread over quite a large area).

The link will take you to a post on my other blog about the museum and an exhibition of huge colourful tapestries I visited there. More fun to look at than rainy winter!

Or if you prefer, scroll back down through my December posts on this blog for more wintry pictures.

Friday My Town

Friday My Town: Motion

Swimming (all right for some!)

  

Walking (for the rest of us)

Driving (taken from the passenger seat!)

A passing train

Summer Triathlon: Swimming

Summer Triathlon: Cycling

Summer Triathlon: Running

 

Friday My Town Shoot Out

Winter Shadows

No use looking for water reflections today!
The river is hiding under a cover of ice and snow.
But hey - that’s my shadow out there!!!

Linking to Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Frozen Flood

Yesterday I very nearly did not bring my camera, just going out for a quick (hmm!) short walk to post a letter. “There can’t possibly be anything interesting along that way on a grey and snow-free winter day,” I thought to myself. But then I grabbed the camera anyway…

And it turned out nature along the familiar path surprised me, once again – as my familiar paths sometimes do. This time I found a frozen lake - where there usually is no lake!

In April, this is one of the close-to-home spots where I go looking for wood anemones! (…not water lilies…)

Alien

It’s still a frozen white world out there. I managed a minor polar
expedition a few days ago to the little park that I prefer to think of
as “Butterfly Park” (it has another official boring name which you
don’t need to know). No butterflies now! But I found an “alien”…
hmm… Looks like it at a distance against the light, at least…
“E.T. phone home”…! Actually it’s a grill, I think.

 

Something else that looks a bit out of place this time of year is
the sign telling people to be extra careful of the croquet lawn.

 

This must be another alien. Or perhaps it’s me that’s the alien.
I had enough trouble even walking. This one was running!

Ruby Tuesday: Twins

Young mother (I suppose!) with red twin pram,
walking in the park on a winter afternoon.

I just happened to be walking behind her,
couldn’t resist picking up the camera…

For Ruby Tuesday

Skywatch Grey-Day

We’re still on that weather roller coaster ride. Monday all white with hoar frost thick as I’ve never it seen before. Tuesday thaw and bare trees again. Wednesday creeping down below zero once more. Thursday morning -14°C (I stayed in). Friday more endurable –4° (or so), and again foggy and frosty, but not quite the same kind of thick spiky frost as Monday. More like the world was just sort swept into “dreamy” shades of white and grey – and all very still. I had to go into town and between my errands I took some shots in the park.

Posting this on Saturday morning, the sky is still as grey, but we’re back to +2°C and strong wind; which means the dreamy white from yesterday is gone, and the trees are now making noises while shaking their bare branches. On the whole, this time of year (knowing that the weather is just mocking us about anyway, and has no real intention of turning into proper spring for a couple of months yet) I do prefer the frosty and still –4 to the bare and windy +2. As if it mattered what we think! The weather does with us what it wants anyway…

… … …

See more of the sky at
Skywatch Friday

Shuttle Service

As soon as one truck full of snow left, an empty one took its place…

One of the truck drivers spotted me taking pictures and asked me if I got good shots… I replied (in a flattering tone of voice): “Oh yes – these photos will prove how very efficient you are!” He seemed pleased with the answer… They’re probably more used to criticism than praise!

Quite honestly, I do think they’re doing a better job of it this winter than the last one, getting rid of the snow. That’s not to say that there aren’t days when one wishes they’d be even more super-efficient…

 

Unfortunately, during last night, probably as much snow as was taken away by the trucks yesterday, again fell down from the sky…!

Mosaic Monday: Snow and Thaw

I’ve not been out much during the past week. All of these photos except the last one were taken through my windows, and I guess they pretty much tell their own story! The temperature has been jumping up and down around the freezing point (0°C) all week. Snow one day, rain the next. Mix the two, and what you get is ice and slush…!

 

See more Monday Mosaics at Mary’s Little Red House

Friday My Town – Macros

I guess by now you’re all aware that we’re having a very cold winter in Sweden. One effect of this is that it’s rather hard these days to get close enough to anything outside to be able to take good macro shots!

Most attempts end up like this one (above) - out of focus!

Taking macro shots of “just snow” is not easy. This one did not get interesting until I let the computer have a go at it, sharpening the contrasts and shadows etc.

 

 
These icicles grew on my balcony…

 

Furry suede mittens do not make it easy taking photographs. On the other hand, neither do frozen fingers… Well, at least I managed a macro shot of the embroidery on one of the mittens! (No I did not make the embroidery myself. It was there when I bought them.)

 

  

I’ve been out in the snow long enough! Let’s go inside…
These two little ones arrived with my human-size New Year’s guests.

 

The angel, sleepy though she seemed, decided to join the choir.

♥ ♥ ♥

More Macro-links at Friday My Town Shoot Out – Mr Linky

Wintry Reflections

We’ve had a cold start to the winter, and parts of the River are already frozen now. But under the bridge there was a patch of open water, which on this still, clear and cold day reflected the snow-covered trees on the river banks.

 

See more Weekend Reflections from around the world at Newton Area Photo

 

♥  PLEASE NOTE  ♥

This blog has recently started over with a new blog address:
http://dawntreader-picturebook2.blogspot.com

If you were a Follower of the blog before,
I hope you will sign up again below.
New followers are of course welcome, too!

Thank you!

♥

A New Beginning

Feeling a bit confused?
Wondering where you are?

Whether you followed the Christmas Bunny* from my first Picture Book to get here, or happened to get here some other way:

Welcome to DawnTreader’s NEW Picture Book 

I noticed a while ago that I was slowly but steadily running out of space at my old blog account. After weighing pros and cons, the best (or at least the cheapest) solution to the problem seemed to be to create a new free account and just pick up where I left off, hoping that old friends will again sign up to follow, and that new ones will find their way here as well.

Basically I have tried to keep the simple layout with black background and without sidebars. There are some improvements in the footer layout in this template, and I will be adding links to other photo blogs by and by.  You will also find some new info-pages (tabs) at the top.

♥ ♥ ♥

* PS: Inserting a copy of the first blog header here since that will be changing later: