Ready for Winter.

12-2-10 VERMONT: We arrived yesterday for a long weekend, driving in the rain for the whole trip. It was warm yesterday until the storm started to pull away and then got cold so the last drop of precip was a dusting of snow. High winds yesterday shook another bunch of branches loose and dropped trees here and there, actually, not here.

Today was sunny with clouds making for high contrast between light and dark. Now lets see—is that schadenfreude or chiaroscuro? Either you expose for light and get a dark blob of shadow or open the lens for shade and get white out. How did Ansel Adams do it?

The pond was frozen over this morning with ice about one-quarter inch thick, but stayed frozen all day. Most of the other ponds in the hood are iceless.

I filled the feeders, and they were immediately mobbed by chickadees, nuthatches and red squirrels waiting for the spillage.


Shady Hills, Sunny Hills.