Tree of Light

Sunday was a day between winter storms. Our most recent snows had ended around noon on Saturday, with skies clearing enough that I was able to spend some quality time on the front porch that evening with January's glorious full wolf moon.

A "wintry mix" was forecast for Monday, with the prediction of snow, ice, and freezing rain on the way for much of the Northeast. So when we awoke Sunday morning to clear skies and slightly warmer temperatures, we seized the opportunity to get some outdoor time.

The sunrise on Sunday was shaping up to be bright and shiny as a new penny. I grabbed my camera and walked about five minutes from my house to get a better view as the sun crested the trees. You might recognize this particular tree as the same one featured in January 12's Winter White photo.

Later in the day, we hiked to the game lands and enjoyed making tracks in the snow. It has been very cold here for many days, and there were quite a few tracks ahead of us that indicated others had done the same thing (and apparently lived), so I felt safe enough to walk across one of the frozen beaver ponds, just to see what it looked like from the middle of the pond.

This is something I think a lot: What would it look like if . . . ? What would it look like from there . . . ? What if I tried that setting instead? What if I got a little closer? What if I kneeled on the ground and shot . . . upward? I am endlessly curious with this camera, and I am happy to report it is quite obliging.

By the way, Sunday evening presented another great opportunity for moon photos. My husband lent me his tripod and I set my camera up on it on the front porch and left everything set up there for a few hours, going out to take pictures about every 10 minutes or so - I don't know whether I'm proud or ashamed to admit I took nearly two hundred pictures of the moon. Call me moon-obsessed. :-) I decided to skip posting one of those, though, as I already posted a moon shot here yesterday . . .

And in totally unrelated news, one of the things that my husband and I enjoy doing on the weekends is cooking together. The food features that brought the most smiles this weekend were Saturday's homemade ranch style meaty baked beans in a crockpot (featuring ground beef, bacon, and ham) and fudge brownies with chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.

The brownies were pretty much out of a box (except for the chips and nuts). But if anyone is interested in the baked bean recipe, leave a request in the comments and I'll be happy to post it here. :-)

P.S. My friend Mikes has suggested a song to accompany this photo, and I think it's a good choice, so I'm posting it here. :-) The main theme from Star Wars seems to herald the coming of the light!