Angel Rock Climbs

Before putting away the Christmas decorations (really late, I know), I wanted to capture some shots of my beautiful angel. I crafted her when I was a wee child and she holds a special place in my heart and our living room every Christmas. The other day she was bored. I told her to go outside, followed her, and documented the following adventure.

 

I said playing outside might make her happier. She looked at me like I was crazy. And it's not just because of her missing eye, which disappeared some time ago in an unfortunate accident, the nature of which I'm not entirely certain. 

 

 But she relented and turned to ponder the grass. It was not stimulating.

  

 "I'm so bored!" she whined after rolling around on the porch bench for a while.

"You know," I said, "I've heard rock climbing is a pretty good cure for boredom. And there's a pillar you can climb right over there."

 

 "...a cure for my boredom?" She looked uneasy. "I'm just not sure. I mean, I've never done rock climbing before, and people tell me my upper body strength isn't superior. But you say it's just over there? Maybe I'll take a look."

 

 "Holy guac. It's so tall. I don't think I can climb all the way up that."

 

 "Seriously, I'm barely taller than the arm of this bench..." I could see she was thinking; the gears in that solid wooden head were turning. It was an intriguing endeavor for the little angel.

 

 Then she jumped on the bench arm with sudden enthusiasm, the likes of which I'd rarely seen from her. And with determination comparable to that of a slug that dreams of flying, she shouted, "For the sake of my sanity, I have no other choice but to conquer this giant rock-beast!"

 

 And so began the climb. It was tough, and she often had to look up to see how far was left, using only her strong feet to grip the pillar as she leaned back and detached her doily arms.

 

 After much huffing and puffing, she finally reached the top!

 

 "I'm exhausted. My doily arms can't take that kind of stress!" she cried while resting on the bench in utter fatigue. "But at least I'm not bored anymore!"

And that's the end of my angel's adventure. Maybe she'll make an appearance again next year in an exciting sequel! Stay tuned.

Frosty Frolicking

Happy New Year! 2013 should be full of big, exciting happenings and I hope you have a wonderful year. Maybe they will even find bigfoot or I will get a picture of a unicorn in its natural habitat. One can hope.

Anyway, to celebrate the new year a few of us went up to my friend's cabin in the San Juan Islands. I woke up [fairly] early to an amazing display of foggy, frosty, eerie weather goodness. So I ran down, grabbed my camera, put on my penguin cut-off gloves, and romped around the yard to capture it all.

 I love frosty grass. It's so cool and makes its own fantastic contrasts.

 

 

 Then I found this amazing table that has seafoam green tiles in it, and there is a quaint little world of life growing in the cracks.

 

 If I was a miniature person living here, I would definitely hike and picnic on this little peninsula.

  

There are also several Madrona trees on the property which have awesome peely bark. I liked this shot looking up the tree.  

 A couple hours later, the fog cleared and everything started thawing so I got a good shot of the bay. Wishing I had a telephoto lens to capture the details of this scene, but it's still pretty. 

This is a great time of the year to get out in the early morning light when nature is still half asleep to get some shots of frozen water beads and cold trees. Since it was overcast, I had the white balance set to "cloudy" and the exposure generally +1/3 of a stop to make up for the darker lighting outside.

Go take some pictures of old man winter, and don't forget your gloves!