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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Ice Storm Art: A Winter Garden Tour Revisited


 
If you think it's chilly outside this weekend, let me remind you of the weather we experienced during the third week of January last year. I'm republishing this blog post from Jan. 20, 2012 because so many of my readers enjoyed the photos of plants encased in ice. All day today, people had to listen to me whine about being cold. Then I remembered this.
 
 
Original post:
 

Here on Good Life Northwest, I've shown photos of my Tacoma garden in every season, but never any like these. To anyone watching me yesterday, I must have looked crazy, hunched down next to my plants to take photos while trying to protect my camera from frozen rain.
 
I can still hear the crunch of my boots through the crust of ice over what had started as 8-9" of snow but had condensed into a treacherous mess. That sound is preferable to the sound of breaking branches. We lost three huge tree limbs and can't tell yet what damage might be done to our shrubs. But at least we didn't lose power, like so many others, an estimated 230,000 across the state, according to Puget Sound Energy.

I hope you aren't one of them. I want to be able share with you these images of the beauty that can be found on even the most miserable day, if you take the time and have the inclination to notice. So pour another cup of coffee, feel gratitude for the roof over your head and all the other things we too often take for granted, and enjoy the show.

Don't worry. The feeder was thawed and refilled immediately after taking this photo.
















All photos and text copyrighted 2012 Candace J. Brown
 

8 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a delightful group of images, displaying the art in nature. Thoughtfully captured. Thank you for sharing

troysworktable said...

Beautiful pictures. I especially like the photographs of the hummingbird and the ice-encased berries.

Elsa of Lake Forest Park said...

wow you really had an ice storm...here it was just snowsnowsnow...but we live in trees and near the lake.

Anonymous said...

What wonderful pictures you always have! Makes me wish I had a better camera and warmer boots! Thank you for reminding me there's always a silver lining.

Candace Brown said...

Many thanks to all of you who commented on my photos. I'm so glad you enjoyed them and I appreciate the nice things you had to say. Most of all, I appreciate the fact that you are reading Good Life Northwest and interacting in this way.

I've had a number of emails from personal friends asking what kind of camera I use. I took every photo here with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, simply set on "Intelligent Auto."

I LOVE this camera. It has the ease of a point-and-shoot digital along with many features of a much more expensive SLR. I can pretty much guarantee that you can find one for under $500 and never regret a cent of it.

It has custom settings galore but even in Intelligent Auto it will do things like track moving objects to hold the focus on them and automatically adjust the focus from distance to macro as you move about and change your proximity to your subject. And you don't have to do anything. Although I still have plenty to learn in order to maximize its potential, I could take great photos with it from the first day because it's so easy to use.

It takes amazingly sharp photos in low light and the videos are way beyond what I'd hoped for. I do freelance writing and the high resolution images I've taken with this camera have been printed in magazines. I think it is one of the best values around.

Thanks again for reading my blog, and for writing. I hope you will all come back for a visit soon, because you never know what you'll find here.

Best Wishes,
Candace

Anonymous said...

I love your photos! Thanks for posting. I am partial to the hummingbird shots as well. But do love the ice-encrusted rose leaves! I just found your blog and will keep following.

Sue Fagalde Lick said...

Candace, I'm slow getting here, but these photos are fantastic. They could hang in a gallery. So stark and so beautiful.

Leslie said...

WOW, these pictures are the best!!!! Leslie