Green boat, no pony

For some reason, this song is going through my head:
If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat
- Lyle Lovett

Waiting to go on

The Region One Arts Fund, which supports the arts in the schools around here, had a recital for any student, in school or private lessons, on Sunday. There were pianists as young as 7 and old as 17, a jazz ensemble, flute and oboe players, and the dancers from Arts in Motion, including my 8-year-old daughter. They did an excerpt from the piece they're working on for their June recital, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Branches

Amazing to think that in about 6 weeks, these branches will look like this!

Chili Dinner

The Sharon Women's Club hosted its Chili Dinner fundraiser last night at the firehouse. There are so many good organizations in town - the Lion's Club and others all do great work supporting worthy causes in the community and beyond, and the Women's Club is no exception. The dinner was very fine - I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of the two dozen unbelievable desserts - and the door and raffle prizes were excellent. We won a bouquet of flowers for ourselves and a basket of goodies (margarita mix, chips and salsa, etc.) for our neighbor.) More photos, including our prizes, here.

A dusting of sugar

That's how these hills look to me - dusted with sugar. The snow in the foreground - the frosting?

Another snowy day

We had another few inches of snow yesterday - it coated everything in the loveliest layers of white.

Grand View

Some day I hope to spend some real time photographing at Grandview Farm. I stopped by for a moment to visit the other day (thanks for the ice skates, by the way!) and took a few shots of their lovely fields and expansive views. The horses don't seem to mind the cold at all.

Drifting

I don't know if I have anything to say about this shot - I'll let you all write the caption.

Snow shapes

You may have to bear with me for a few days, while I post a few pictures of the interesting abstract shapes, colors and textures made by the snowdrifts. Here are a few to start.

Objects in rearview mirrow are closer than they apepar

This is Poppy, who lives next door. I think he's in training to be a hood ornament.

Silver Lake

I imagine this is a welcome sight to generations of people who have come to Sharon for retreats with the United Church of Christ. It's on the shore of Silver Lake, known to most of us as Mudge Pond, and has been hosting retreats and conferences for over 50 years.

A day at the beach

Actually it's a snowy field - it was about zero degrees (Fahrenheit, just to be clear) with -20 wind chill, when I was taking pictures this afternoon. But wow, what cool shots I got! Here are a few more.

Blowing

We only ended up with about 6 of 8 inches of snow, but it came down hard for a while. I went out at the peak of it and got this shot of the little sidewalk snow blower going by. This morning it took us hours to get out of the driveway - one car wouldn't start, and when we used the other car to jumpstart it went dead too. The guy who drives the plow started one, so my husband could take the kids to school, and the piano tuner started the other, but I still haven't left the house - there's a little more digging to do. Everyone is out on the street shoveling and playing in the snow, which is still mostly white and beautiful!

A bird in the hand

Three white-throated sparrows flew into our porch when the kids ran out to play in the snow (sleet, really) and left the door open. They were hurling themselves into the windows, trying to escape. We were able to catch them and throw them back outside -though come to think of it if I were them I'd rather stay in the nice dry porch til the storm is over! Holding a bird is an incredible feeling - they weigh next to nothing, their feathers are unbelievably soft, you can feel their heart poundind and yet they stay calm and don't struggle - they must know they're utterly helpless.

Preparing for Valentine's Day

Getting ready for Valentine's Day is hard work - preparing cards for all the classmates. Especially when you're a perfectionist and each card takes a half-hour. Good thing we have a snow day on Wednesday, giving a little extra time!

Meanwhile, back indoors...

For those of us not hardy enough to exercise in 10-degree cold, there's always the track. It's 11 laps to the mile, so you feel a bit like a gerbil in a cage, but it's a good workout nonetheless. Since I'm training for a triathlon, I need to run a few times a week - the rest of the time I swim and spin. I have four months to prepare for the race, which is in early June - wish me luck!

Ski jumps

Well, I went to the ski jumps, but it was not a successful day from a photography standpoint. I'm coming down with a cold or something, so didn't get out the door early enough to see more than a handful of practice jumps before the morning session ended, and had another commitment in the afternoon when the championships were going on. Besides which, while we were there my children had various crises having to do with spilled hot chocolate, lack of cash to replace said hot chocolate, cold toes, and other meltdown-causing problems. Many thanks to the guy who handed me two bucks and said, "this fell out of your purse' - how embarrassing to need such a handout (because my ATM card's magnetic strip isn't working - I'm not THAT broke!) but it did bail us out, briefly, of two temper tantrums, and gave me a few moments' freedom while they sipped so I could try a few shots.

Then came the camera troubles -including a nearly-dead battery, and inability to remember how to use the manual settings so I could get a burst of exposures and compensate the f-stop properly for the snow. More thanks to the guy from the Granby camera club who kindly tried to help on that end! My shots, few as they were, were almost all overexposed - but sort of interesting anyway.

Finally frozen toes, wailing children and that other commitment forced us to leave before the real jumps even started. Here are a few more shots including an actual jump.

One more snow picture

The snow fell a week ago, and is slowly getting trampled, soiled, and otherwise losing its beauty. But I still have a few more lovely shots of its first glorious moments.

Ski Jump Weekend

What's going on this weekend? It's hard to tell from the snow covered roadsigns, but it's the famous Salisbury Ski Jumps! It's a really big deal - the Salisbury Winter Sports Association has been hosting it for 80 years! I hope to make it there on Saturday to snap a few!

Snow on the Oaks

As part of my tour around some favorite spots, to see how they were transformed by the snow, I paid a visit to the Twin Oaks. The snow delineated every branch. And yes, the sky really was this blue!

Main Street

I don't know if I ever have shown this particular point of view, looking down Upper Main Street. After the snow last weekend, it was gorgeous.

Ice fishing on Mudge Pond

At least I think that's what they're doing - couldn't really tell. It's awfully cold to be spending much time out there!

Hidden

The hidden sign says "Hidden Drive."

Transformed

...by the snow. Now that we finally have some (about three heavy wet inches fell last night - the sledders and skiiers in my family were delighted) all the places I usually visit have been transformed. I'll be visiting them over the next few days. This is Low Road.

Icy Pond

Into the woods

I've been looking at this photo all week trying to decide if it's blog-worthy. I've concluded that since I keep wanting to look at it some more, it's worth showing to others. I can't remember whether it was Cole Road or Williams or Low or West Cornwall and I'm afraid to guess because I know someone is watching and will correct me! (Actually I don't mind at all!)

Monthly Theme day - NOT!

I am not participating in this month's daily photo theme day - the theme that was voted in was "what really annoys you in your city." I couldn't think of anything! So my post is just of a lovely house I walked by on Williams Road - but if you want to check out what's really annoying in over fifty other cities around the world, click the links below!


Porto (Portugal) -Stayton, OR (USA) -Albuquerque, NM (USA) -Tenerife (Spain) -Greenville, SC (USA) -Dubai (U.A.E.) -Evry (France) -Jakarta (Indonesia) -London (UK) -Sequim, WA (USA) -Buenos Aires, (Argentina) -Seattle, WA (USA) -Minneapolis, MN (USA) -Stavanger (Norway) -Joplin , MO (USA) -Nelson, New Zealand -Milano, Italy -Singapore (KeropokMan) -La Antigua Guatemala (Guatemala) -Nottingham UK -Singapore by Zannnie (Singapore) -Budapest (Hungary) -Not Strictly Seattle, -Bandung (Indonesia) -Vantaa (Finland) -Hyde (UK) -Madrid by Dsole (Spain) -Oulu (Finland) -Saarbr?cken (Germany) -St. Paul [Carol] -Sydney (Australia) -Tokyo (Japan) -Kyoto (Japan) -Trujillo (Peru) -Shanghai (China) -Rotterdam (NL) -Chicago, IL (USA) -Nice, (France) -Naples, Florida (USA) -Hong Kong -Santa Clara, CA (USA) -Quito, Ecuador (South America) -Cottage Grove, MN (USA) -Paris, (France) -Manila (Philippines) -Brussels (Belgium) -Auckland (New Zealand) -Newcastle upon Tyne(England) -Houston, TX (USA) -Sydney by Nathalie (Australia) -Mumbai (India) -Anderson, SC (USA) -