The rowboat in a snow squall waiting for warmer weather.  Or…

Watching the snow fall, hoping enough will accumulate so we can go cross-country skiing.

Altered version (post-processed in Photoshop and Picnik).

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is Hope.

It snowed for most of the day, but the ground is too warm and wet.  Most of it has melted already.  As of this writing, in the late afternoon, the sun is shining and the sky is a gorgeous shade of blue with the occasional fluffy white cloud floating by.

Three trees reflected between the ice sheets on the pond.

The surface of the pond is beginning to freeze again, from the outside in.   I stopped to admire the reflections in the water in between the ice while on my walk this morning.

Warming up by the fire after a morning walk in the snow storm.

That’s it from the Bogs on this snowy January day.  It’s been a nice, quiet Saturday.  Relaxing.  It’s nice not to have anywhere to go or anything in particular to do.  Let’s just have a seat by the fire, sip on a warm beverage, and be grateful we’re indoors.  The temperature is dropping, the wind is gusting, and it will be pretty cold out there tonight.

Yesterday seemed to be my day to visit with hawks.  While out running errands a red-tailed hawk flew close to me, showing off his gorgeous colors and beautiful feathers.  I did not have the camera with me at the time.  To be honest, even if I had I probably wouldn’t have thought to photograph the hawk because I was stunned by his closeness and beauty.

This amazing creature stopped by late yesterday afternoon to have a snack.  Judging by the feathers left behind, I think he caught one of the juncos who visit the feeder.  I am not sure what kind of hawk this is, but I’m guessing it’s a Cooper’s Hawk.  I bet Christina or Pat could help me out with identification.

The hawk must have been fairly hungry as he didn’t seem to mind me hanging around like his own personal paparazzi.

I had a fun day today.  An Artist’s Date of sorts.  I spent most of the day over in Akron where I had lunch at my favorite Akron restaurant and then spent a couple of hours at the Akron Art Museum.   I went to see the Landscapes From the Age of Impressionism exhibit as well as Supernatural, a photography exhibit.  It was nice to spend an afternoon soaking up some art.

Akron Art Museum

Outside, it’s been dreary here in the Bogs.  A snizzle (snow and rainy drizzle) has been coming down for a good part of the day.  It’s cold, but not freezing.  We won’t be cross-country skiing this weekend.

Leaving the Akron Art Museum. (Cross processing done in Picnik.)

Well, that’s about it from the Bogs for today.  I’ll leave you with one last look at the hawk.  Thank you so much for stopping by.  A big thanks to all of you who left comments on yesterday’s post regarding reblogging.  I appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts on the matter.

Have a fantastic weekend!  If you happen to have some sunshine where you’re at, please pass some this way.  It would be nice to see it again.

Warm and cold were battling it out here in the Bogs this morning.  We had what is called a temperature inversion where the air up above is warm, causing rain, but down below it’s freezing, causing the rain to turn to ice when it hits the trees and the ground and everything else in the cold zone.

A while back I asked you all how you felt about reblogging.  The reason I asked was because, at the time, my posts were being reblogged on an almost daily basis on a blog that had no original content.  Reblogging not only picks up words, but images.  All images.  I had a post reblogged this morning that picked up the image and displayed it larger than I do on my blog.  (Yes, yes… I resize my images for the web so the larger display wasn’t all that pretty.)

The problem I have with this is that I would prefer that people visit my blog to view my images.  That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.  I also don’t like it when people use my images and words without at least asking me first so I will have a chance to see where and how those words and images might be used (or what they will be associated with).  I don’t think that’s unreasonable either.

Chances are extremely good that if you ask me, I’ll allow you to use an image or reblog a post as long as it’s not for commercial purposes (in which case, we need to talk about payment).  I’m thrilled when someone likes my work enough to want to link to it or use it in some way.  I am not thrilled, however, when posts that I work hard on, and images that are mine, appear somewhere without my permission.  It looks and feels like content theft although WordPress insists it is not.  How do I reconcile this with my stance against SOPA?

I don’t know.  The thing is, I don’t mind reblogging in theory.  What I mind is the lifting of content whole hog with the press of button and without so much as a by-your-leave.  To me that looks and feels different than a quote and a link.  At least with the quote and the link the blogger had do a little work to get there, and they (usually) aren’t lifting images with the quote.  A solution that I think might work well for all involved would be to have the reblog button become a request to reblog so the author of the images and content has a chance to approve or disapprove the reblogging of their post(s).

I gave some thought to moving to another blog hosting website.  The problem with that is it’s too confusing for some of my friends and family who are not internet savvy, and it’s a pain for those who do know what they are doing to have to change their links.  Instead, I will probably have to accept that reblogging is here to stay and find some way to live with it.  I have posted my reblogging policy over in the sidebar.  I’ll be surprised if those inclined to reblog on a regular basis (those without original content) bother to read or follow it.  After all, they don’t have to.  WordPress says it’s OK.

Thank you for stopping by the Bogs for a visit today.  I apologize for the rant.  Regular programming (without the “do not reblog” on all the photos) will resume tomorrow.  It’s entirely possible that by tomorrow I’ll have changed my mind and I’ll be one of reblogging’s biggest fans.  You never know.

Your turn:  What are your thoughts on reblogging?  How do you feel about blogs with no original content reblogging your posts?  And do you care whether or not someone lifts your images without your permission as long as it links back to your blog?

To be simple means to make a choice about what’s important, and let go of all the rest.  When we are able to do this, our vision expands, our heads clear, and we can better see the details of our lives in all their incredible wonder and beauty.

~ John Daido Loori

Weekly Photo Challenge.

‘Whoever shall this trumpet blow,
Shall soon the giant overthrow,
And break the black enchantment straight;
So all shall be in happy state.’

~ From Jack the Giant Killer, the English fairy tale version

The photos in this post are from my Quail Hollow hike a few weeks ago.  I realized this morning that I had not finished sorting through the images I brought home with me via the camera.  When I saw these two trees lying on the forest floor on the carpet of green, I immediately thought of a felled giant.

We are sailing into the Doldrums of late January which eventually leads to the February Funk.  The day has been gray and dull.  Cold, but without the benefit of snow to play in.

The ground is too soggy and boggy for hiking.

So it’s kind of nice to go back a little and look at photos from a sunny day.

They say Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.  I’m thinking it’s time to get a little wild.  Do something new.

I don’t think I’ll be skydiving or bungee jumping anytime soon, but I do think it’s time to move out of my comfort zone a little.  Have some fun.  Escape the Doldrums.

Thanks for joining me here in the Bogs today.  Don’t let the cloudiness get you down.  I’m sure there’s some fun to be found.  We just have to make an effort and look around.  (Excuse the unintentional rhyming.  I didn’t notice it until I previewed the post and then thought, “oh, why not?”  It’s fun and silly.  Do it.)

If you paid a visit to my other blog today, you may think this is a cross-posting.  It’s not, really.  I’m leading with the same post title and image because I have brick walls on the brain today.

I thought writing small stones for a river of stones would become easier as the month wore on.  Practice makes perfect, as they say, although I certainly wasn’t aiming for perfection of any kind.  Just ease and flow.  Instead, it’s become more difficult and this morning I felt as though I’d hit a brick wall and would not be able to progress from there.

For me, writing is not as effortless as photography.  I step outside with my camera and I almost immediately start shooting.  The pond, the woods, the meadows, the paths, are all so familiar and yet they change constantly.  I am shooting what I know, capturing those moments before the next change.  Words, though, are slippery devils and I lack confidence in my ability to capture them in some way, to use them to create a different kind of image.

I’ve been occasionally using the prompts from the book A Writer’s Book of Days by Judy Reeves.  I’m following the prompts on my own schedule, slowly easing into it.  The prompt I used today (“Shapes like stars”) was actually for January 10th (or thereabouts).  Rather than skip prompts, I’ve decided to ignore the dates and carry on, one after the other.  I’ll eventually make my way through the book even though the 365 days will not be consecutive.

What I have found is that it’s true what the books I’ve read about writing allege:  Put pen to paper, start writing, and you’ll find yourself breaking through that wall.  They don’t guarantee it will be good, but at least you’ll be writing.

Mmmmm.... peanuts!

In other news…

We are going through another rainy, warm-up.  The snow and ice are melting quickly.

Today's view of the pond and the thaw.

It’s not a good day for picture-taking.  Too wet, too muddy, too slushy.  The heavy rains this morning brought the mud up through the snow and it’s looking pretty ugly.  The temperature is nice.  In the 50s.  The snow will be back tomorrow.  Rain again on Thursday.  What a contrary winter this has been.

The last snowfall (on 20 January). This is prettier than today's round of photos.

That’s it from the Bogs for now.  Thanks for visiting.  Hold on to your hat and umbrella!  We’re under a wind advisory today with sustained winds of 31 to 39 mph and gusts up to 45 mph expected.  The last time we had gusty winds, it blew the rowboat into the neighbor’s yard.  That was some wind.

Picnik will be closing.  The last day to use the photo editing site is April 19, 2012.  I will be sorry to see it go because I was just starting to really enjoy playing around with my photos in a variety of ways.   Picnik made play easy to do, usually in one step rather than the several I often have to take in Photoshop to get certain effects.

Because they will be closing soon, they have opened up their premium features.  You can now use them for free.  Today I played with textures.  I used a photo of a poinsettia tipped over in the snow I took yesterday and tried on a couple of textures.

The first photo is the almost straight out of the camera image.  It was resized and tweaked a little (contrast, sharpening).  I think the snow provided a pretty interesting texture without post-processing help.

The day started out rather frustrating.  I worked out some of the frustration skiing.  I took my first tumble today.  Skiing will be easier now.  The first fall always releases the fear, the worried voice in my head that seems to think if I fall the worst will happen.  I fell.  I got up.  I laughed about it.  And you know what else?  It didn’t kill me.

I worked out the rest of my stress playing.  I played with the photos.  I also took a trip to a local art supply store to purchase some items I needed to help me get started on an altered book project.  It’s a project I have been eagerly looking forward to beginning and as soon as I get this posted I’m moving over to the “Art Desk” (as my oldest granddaughter calls it) to make what will probably be a mess at first.  Yay!  Here’s to messiness!  I’m letting go of perfection.

Thanks for dropping in to the Bogs for a few minutes on this beautiful Sunday.  The sun is shining, the temperature is rising, but there’s still enough snow out there for sledding or skiing.  Enjoy.  :)

I spent a lot of time last winter trying to “capture” the elusive male cardinal.  I set up camp by a window where I’d have the best shot at him.  I’d patiently wait.  And wait.  And wait.  As soon as I had to get up and move for some reason (sometimes just to move!), he would show up and I’d miss the shot.   Or that brilliant red would catch the eye of one of the cats and they would scare him off by jumping up on the windowsill.  Eventually I settled for this photo although I did keep trying throughout the winter.  It was as good as it was going to get.

This year I haven’t seen much of the male cardinal.  He seems to prefer the neighbor’s birdseed over mine.  Perhaps the neighbors are away or they’ve forgotten to put out seed.  Whatever the case, the male cardinal and his mate have been frequenting our homemade bird feeder.  Maybe we scored points with them for originality.  After all, how many folks have a bird feeder made from an old bicycle tire?

They are both still difficult to capture, flying off at the slightest movement indoors.  So I feel pretty lucky to have managed to capture him and her this morning.  I suspect these shots are as good as it gets for this year (and for my camera).

The cardinal’s presence reflects a time to renew our vitality.  It reflects lessons in developing and accepting a new sense of our own true self-importance.

~ Ted Andrews, Animal Speak

The mourning doves, on the other hand, are quite cooperative.  They sometimes have to be chased away as they will sit smack in the middle of the food as if brooding over an egg.

The little birds don’t mind me at all as long as I don’t move too much.  They always travel in mixed groups, and I haven’t yet tried to identify anything other than the Dark-Eyed Junco.  They will put up with a few shifts and movements before suddenly taking off all at once.

M and I went cross-country skiing early this afternoon.  We didn’t go far.  Just around Breezy Acres a few times.  I took my first trip down our big hill.  It’s not really a big hill, as you can see from the photo above.  But it’s the best hill we have, and I’m a little shaky on the first trip or two down a hill which tends to increase the size of the hill in my mind.  I prefer flat ground.  And mild to moderate uphills.  I’m good at those.

The first trip down usually requires some time for me to think about it and work up the nerve to go.  This time I didn’t bother.  I fit my skis in the tracks M had made and took off, shouting “wheeeeeee!” on the way down.  You can see where I swerved to the left a little.  That’s where my monkey-mind thought about what could happen rather than staying in the fun moment, which caused me to try to slow down.  It’s easy to lose your balance if you start thinking ahead and worrying about things that are unlikely to happen.

Creekside in the woods

I took a walk back to the woods today, too.  It’s beautiful back there, as it always is in the winter after a good snowfall.

That’s it from the Bogs for this wonderful wintry Saturday.  Thank you for visiting.  The sun came out late this afternoon and the sky is the most amazing shade of blue.  I bet the sunset is going to be colorful.  There are just enough clouds left to create extra texture and color in the sky.  We can watch from the living room, near the fireplace, staying warm as we toast the setting sun.

The locust tree saluting the big, beautiful, blue sky.

I had my weather facts wrong yesterday.  The snowstorm that moved through was not lake effect snow at all, but part of a clipper system coming down from Canada.  The snow we’re expecting later today will be brought to us courtesy of another front.  The weather prognosticators are saying we could get up to 6 inches of new snow.  Skiing might be possible tomorrow.

A trio of doves

I went out for my walk at sunrise this morning.  The sky was the most amazing shade of pinkish-purple.

The temperature was a big, round zero, not at all nice to my fingers even though I layered with gloves and mittens.  My fingers did a lot of stumbling and fumbling with the camera buttons/controls.  Fifteen minutes out and I’d had enough.

Thawing out my fingers was painful.  I have no idea how the birds and other critters can stand this kind of cold.

The male cardinal showed up at the feeder today.  The photos I managed to get are not very good.  My camera is doing some odd things lately (probably a result of dragging it out on zero degree days!).  A lot of the photos are coming out with that painting-like effect.  I decided to go with it and enhance it a little in Photoshop.

Yesterday was my smoberversary.  Eleven years ago, on 19 January, I quit smoking.  It slipped my mind yesterday.  I usually post my stats and my “Joy of Quitting” list to celebrate so here we go…

I have been gloriously smoke-free for 4,018 days.  I have not smoked 241,098 death sticks (cigarettes).  (Good grief.  The thought of that many cigarettes all heaped in a pile is sickening.)  Money not spent (because I sure didn’t save it):  $60,270.00.  (I wouldn’t mind have all of that heaped in a pile.)

I will put my Joy of Quitting list at the end of the post so it’s easy to skip if you’re not interested.  In the meantime, thank you for dropping by the Bogs.  It looks like the next round of snow will be arriving soon.  Maybe we can go sledding later.  :)

Long time visitors to my blog know that every year I review my list called The Joys of Quitting.  I originally started the list during my first year and have been adding to it once in a while.  As I reread it today, some of those joys seems a little quaint to me.  They are still important joys, just not in the same way since they are now the foundation of my quit rather than part of the present moment of quitting.

The joys of quitting ….

.…. the smell of freshly baked bread, daffodils and other flowers, fresh air, sheets that have been dried outside in the wind and sunshine, the earth after a spring shower, scented candles and incense, perfume, buttered popcorn, a freshly peeled orange, and pine needles on a forest floor.

….. the real taste of all those foods I enjoy.

….. hiking up steep hills and climbing stairs without gasping for breath or feeling like I’m going to have a heart attack.

….. sleeping through the night without coughing, wheezing, or waking up craving a smoke.

….. lots of spare time to use as I like rather than as a slave to my addiction.

….. the joyous feeling of accomplishment, of knowing I made it through the last craving, of knowing that I’m winning this battle, of knowing that if I can do this, I can do ANYTHING.

….. the journey into who I am and what I am and what I wish to become.

….. learning how to express my anger right away rather than letting it build up to the ultimate explosion. Learning that tears are a river of cleansing and healing. Learning to live life by really feeling it rather than hiding behind a smokescreen.

….. digging deep and finding out that I really do have the strength to do this.

….. healthy, glowing skin and fewer wrinkles. Good hair days. A twinkle in my eyes. White teeth. No more yellow stains around my mouth and on my fingers.

….. living in the moment and appreciating the small joys of life as I take this journey one step, one moment, one hour, and one day at a time.

….. deep, deep, deep breaths which reach down into my toes and seem to go on forever.

….. the look of love and pride on the faces of my husband and sons.

…. the look of love and pride on my own face.

….. the knowledge that it DOES get better if I wait long enough.

….. the swing of my arms, the roll of my hips, and the increasing strength of my muscles and lungs as I take my daily walks.

….. the freedom to no longer worry about whether or not I stink of cigarette smoke when I go out with friends who are non-smokers.

….. the freedom to enjoy a movie, a play, a concert, or a party without worrying about and looking for a smoke break.

….. more energy and a general over-all feeling of being fully, in living color, alive and well.

….. kissing my husband and knowing I don’t taste like an ashtray.

….. training for a marathon, something I never could have done while I was smoking.

….. going on holiday and sleeping in a clean smelling non-smoking hotel room.

….. leaving behind the constant, every 15-20 minutes, craving for a cigarette and knowing that those cravings may occasionally come around as a minor urge, but they’ll never again control my life as long as I tend to my quit.

….. celebrating my One Year anniversary of freedom on January 19, 2002, which is when it finally sunk in that I am really doing this, without one cheat, puff, or slip.

….. the snow-ball effect of moving from one self-improvement project to another because now I truly know, more so than when I first wrote this, that I can do anything I set my mind to doing.

….. celebrating my Two Year anniversary of freedom on January 19, 2003, and realizing that I wasn’t counting anymore.

….. getting together with old friends and family that I haven’t seen in a while and having them comment on how healthy I look.

….. taking off the weight I gained when I first quit (27 lbs.) and taking off more weight now that I truly know I’m capable of doing whatever I set my mind to do. Quitting taught me that valuable lesson. It’ll teach you, too.

….. celebrating a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth smoberversary, and having to be reminded about each of them.

….. voting to go smoke-free in the Bogs and having it pass. It’ll be great, when we move back, to be able to go to restaurants, clubs, and bars without having to suck in someone else’s poisonous smoke. (Sabbaticalville is not smoke-free, much to my displeasure.)

….. celebrating my ninth year of being smoke-free and being astounded by the amount of money I would have spent if I’d still been smoking for all these years.

….. epiphanies.  Even this late in the game, there are things to be learned from the beginnings of this quit.

….. celebrating a whole decade of living without cigarettes.

….. taking a cross-country ski lesson and as we were heading up a hill for the third time thinking about how thankful I am that I quit smoking because I would not have been able to do this if I had continued to smoke heavily.  (And I was a heavy duty smoker.)

….. celebrating eleven years of deep, clear breaths and being grateful for the reminder of success.

I used to end this with:  ‘That’s the short list.’  But it has grown so much over the years that the word short no longer applies although there are the intangibles, the things that, if I could put them into words, would add a great deal to this list.

Has this journey of quitting been easy? No. And I appreciate it all the more because of the effort I’ve had to make to get as far as I have. It’s also important to realize that it hasn’t always been hard, either. The joyous, positive moments far outweigh the crappy, struggling moments. I think that’s one of the keys to quitting…..counting up those joyous moments, no matter how small, and being grateful for them.

If you smoke, think about quitting.  If you quit or are in the midst of quitting, stay quit.  It might take a while but eventually you’ll get here too, and understand just how joyous life can be once you break the bonds of that addiction.

My passion for quitting isn’t just about my own quit.  My mother died of small-cell lung cancer.  Small-cell lung cancer is a deadly, aggressive, nasty cancer.  There are two known causes:  coal mining and smoking cigarettes.  My mother was not (nor had she ever been) a coal miner.  She was, however, a smoker.

Miss you, Mom.

To balance out yesterday’s black out, I bring you a White Out.  The snow started falling yesterday, with some breaks in the action here and there.  The front, which brought with it some thunderstorms and strong winds, is somewhere out east (perhaps off the coast by now), and the snow that’s flying today is lake-effect.

View of the pond yesterday morning. (One of those breaks I mentioned.)

We are currently under one of those special weather advisories.  Snow to continue… visibility below one mile expected with periods of less than half a mile possible… accumulations can be as much as an inch an hour… etc., etc., etc.  Any photos I take today are likely to look like the white-out photos I took yesterday except for some additional snow on the ground.

View of the pond a few hours later.

If we’re lucky, we might fit in some skiing before the new round of warmer temps and rain.

Watching the snow fall

Thank you to everyone who left wishes and happy birthday’s for M.  He thanks you too.

Now, about those black walnuts.  M’s favorite cake is walnut cake so that is usually what he has for his birthday cake.  Not just any walnut cake, mind you.  He likes his Grandma Kraus’ walnut cake.  (To read more about it, including the recipe, visit this post.)  Grandma Kraus had a black walnut tree in her yard so when she made walnut cake, it was black walnut cake.  We do not have a black walnut tree so when I make walnut cake, it is walnut cake.  Store-bought walnuts at that.

Our neighbor (across the street) does have a black walnut tree.  Every year she leaves a few walnuts on the ground for the critters, rakes up the rest, and burns them with the leaves.  Back in October or November, M asked her if he could have some of the walnuts if she wasn’t going to use them.  She was agreeable so he planned to go over a day or two later, during the weekend, to get some.  However, the next morning our very nice neighbor brought M a wheelbarrow full of black walnuts.  Well, that was a lot more than we needed (wanted), but we were grateful to her for not only giving us the walnuts, but gathering them for us, too.

I don’t know if you’ve ever shelled black walnuts, but it’s no easy thing to do.  I don’t remember the exact order of things, but the walnuts were soaked, dried, tossed around in the cement mixer with some sand and water, and dried some more.  Eventually M was able to start cracking them, also no easy thing to do.  It takes a lot of work and time to get enough black walnuts for a walnut cake.

And boy, was it worth it!  M, having done all the work on removing the “meat” from the walnut shells, decided he wanted to make the cake (cupcakes, which is better for just the two of us and for giving away to the neighbor who gave us the walnuts).  I knew the taste would be different (black walnuts have a stronger, earthier flavor), but hadn’t expected the texture to be so amazing.  Black walnuts seem to be oilier than the regular walnuts.  Best.  Walnut.  Cake.  Ever.  Now I know why M kept insisting that black walnuts are essential to a fabulous walnut cake.

So.  That’s the story of the black walnuts.  Not terribly exciting.  No adventures or anything, other than of the gustatory variety.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Be careful when you leave.  Visibility is pretty poor right now due to a snow squall.  M and I are thinking of heading over to the Akron Art Museum sometime soon to see the landscape exhibits (one exhibit involves photography, and the other involves paintings from the era of impressionism).  You’re welcome to join us if you like.  :)