A Morning Fox Surprise

When we woke up early this morning, a brief period of snow was moving in. Despite the fact that it was about 4:30 AM and the cloud cover was thick, it looked very bright outside from the light being reflected from the snow. The snow was sticking to the trees and looked beautiful, so I thought I would try to take a picture in the low light to try to capture the sight. I left all the lights in the house off so there would be no light glare on the window. But, the camera setting I used didn’t leave the shutter open long enough, so my first attempt came out too dark. I adjusted the camera shutter speed to leave it open longer. As I snapped another photo, I was surprised to see a fox trotting through the yard. I hoped that as I snapped another shot that I would be able to capture it in the picture. I was even more surprised when a second fox appeared and followed the first one through the yard. As I continued to snap the pictures, I remembered that I had the camera set so the shutter would stay open longer, which probably meant my pictures would only show a blur where the fox were running.

Sure enough, when I looked at the photos, that’s exactly what happened – no fox, just a blur. But, lucky for me, when I looked at the first picture I took that was too dark, I could see the faint image of a fox. By lightening the picture a bit – which was virtually black mind you – I got my reward. Standing back by the fence, was one of the fox. I thought I’d share the picture with you. It looks a bit grainy from the low light, but you can still see the fox standing near the fence, waiting to make a move!




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Colorful Sunset Before The Winter Storm

There is a winter storm – an “Alberta Clipper” coming in from Canada – that’s due to arrive overnight. It’s supposed to kick off some snowy weather. But, as a treat in advance of the snowy mess, we got a beautiful sunset. Enjoy!




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Blizzard Conditions

A snowstorm came through on Sunday, December 21, that brought with it some blizzard conditions. During the day, winds were sustained at about 20 mph, but the gusts reached 40 mph+. When this video was taken in the evening of December 21, the wind was really gusting and it almost knocked me over. Enjoy this short video of the winds and snow.






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Snow, Sleet, Ice, Plus a Close Full Moon

This morning we had a mixed bag of weather. It started with snow, then moved to sleet, ice, and it is supposed to change over to rain later in the morning. I snapped a few shots as the precipitation was coming down as a sleety, icy mix. It looked like little sparkling diamonds, which made a pinging noise as it hit the surfaces. The pictures don't quite do it justice, as it's hard for the camera to pick up the sparkle. Later in the morning, ice began to form on the trees, so I added a few pictures of that as well.

I also forgot that I took a picture of the full moon that occurred on December 12, 2008. It was the closest and largest full moon of the year. It was also the closest and largest that the full moon has been since March 8, 1993. We won’t see a full moon this close again until November 14, 2016. My picture of the moon has a slight “glow” to it, as there was a very thin layer of high clouds in the sky at the time.

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Getting Ready for the Christmas Holiday

The weather has been rather tame lately so I haven’t had the opportunity to get any good weather pictures. Instead, I thought I would just post a photo of the wreath we hang on our front door for the holidays. An acquaintance made it for me many years ago and she probably has no idea how much I enjoy it – especially when the sun shines on it, causing it to flash and sparkle. Of course, clear skies and bright sun in December here in northeast Ohio seems to be a rarity, so we enjoy it when we can get it!



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When Fall and Winter Collide

Technically, this is still fall. But, with the lake effect snow we received in the last 24 hours, it looks more like winter.

The lawn is now covered with snow, with a nice layer of leaves scattered all over the top. Some of our trees were slow to lose their leaves so as the snow fell, so did the leaves. It actually looks very pretty, but it would be a little hard to rake those leaves right now!






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The First Snowfall of Winter 2008

It was bound to happen sooner or later. We got our first snowfall of the season, and it wasn’t just a little dusting. It was one of those heavy, wet, lake effect snows that just keeps going and going and going. It also included a heavy dose of thunder. I don't know why, but the thunder I hear when there is "thundersnow" always seems so much loader, and rumbles longer, than thunder with a rain storm.

We are lucky that we got a lot of the leaves picked up over the weekend, otherwise we we have a thick mat of frozen leaves under all that snow. But, as you can see by the photos, some of the trees still have quite a few leaves on them that haven’t completely changed to their fall colors and are yet to drop. It does look pretty, though.

Some of the maples and the oak still have their leaves

One of the burning bush is getting cooled off with the snow

The blue oat grass is getting buried

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