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for the daily dog walks with Madelyne in the morning.

Madelyne was anxious to get going this morning and jumped on the bed and started licking my face until I awoke.  It was just like my girls 25 years ago shaking me and saying in their 5 year old voices,  ”Come on Dad, get up! The sun is up. Make us sunshine pancakes for breakfast.”  Now I know that Madelyne wasn’t thinking about sunshine pancakes but she was thinking about going outside for her own specifiic reasons.

Phone Home

Not believing that it was morning already, I got dressed, grabbed my camera and leash and we started our walk.  I was still in a daze… that early morning haze where I was not quite sure what day it was or even why I was outside in the cold instead of being between the flannel sheets of our king sized bed.

A few steps up the street and Madelyne was already making her mark by a nearby fire hydrant.  A few moments later we stopped to let a Ginger Woods neighbor back out of their garage on their way to do battle with rush hour traffic when I happened to look up from the ground to refocus my gaze across the road. The moon was setting brightly as the sun was rising at my back.

My brain haze instantly vanished at the startling image before me.  I had to take a picture.  A few more steps up the street and I had to take another,and then another further up.  It was an awesome sight.

Sun on Rise, Moon into shadows

Sun Light, Moon Shadows

The contrast of the Sun light on the trees close to me and the Moon shadows on the trees in the distance was just beautiful.  It’s hard to get excited about anything at 6:30 in the morning, especially after being one with bed just minutes before.  With this little camera and even smaller lens (about the size of a shirt button) the crispness of the imagery is really hard to capture the way it was experienced standing in the cold.  A photograph should stand on it’s own without needing any explanation.  But the limitations of a snapshot camera to make the images pop off the page are disappointing in comparison to the real moment.  I hope there is enough here to convey the mood.

Still Holding On to the Past

While 98% of all the other living trees and bushes have lost their leaves and have gone dormant, some defy the Mother Nature and try defiantly to hold on to past glory.

Forecast is colorful & bright

Incredibly, a small section of this ornament shrub has held on to a late blooming flower that was inspired by a rather unusually warm and lengthy Indian Summer last Fall.  Despite some of heaviest snows in years and some wild winter wind storms with custy winds over 50 mph, this dried flower has remained on the stem. It defies logic.  I see it as foreboding of a wonderful Spring to come where this little flower will give way ONLY to a new one that is bright and colorful and to bask in the sunshine in early May.

The Signs are all around us

Even the Snowmen are ready for Change!

When I first started this blog between Christmas ‘09 and New Years Eve, we had just passed the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year. The mornings were dark getting up with Madelyne, and by 4:30 in the afternoon the sun was setting on the horizon.  Now, getting up and out with Madelyne there is at least a glitter of sunlight on the Eastern front and enough ambient light to take a photo or two.

The birds this morning were chirping and I heard my first Robin singing away above one of the homes here in Ginger Woods. I only hoped that the residents below were planning on awakening at 6:30 am. if not, they were up anyway!  The Cardinals have been around throughout the winter as have the sparrows, and an occasional hoot owl.

Many trees are showing signs of buds at the very tips of all their branches.  It will be a few months before they blossom, but just the sight of the buds is encouraging.  For sol long, the only thing in the trees have been the squirrel nests.  This week we are to get daytime highs nearing 45 degrees Fahrenheit.  Currently temperatures are in the low 30’s and the snow is melting off rather quickly soaking into the ground. Once the ground thaws a little, everything will become gooshie the aroma’s in the air will be “earthy”.

Berries drying out, leaves coming to life

Still other signs are the trees and bushes that have retained their leaves, berries or seed pods. These are beginning to drop and thin out.  The berries have begun to dry out and shrivel and have lost their blumpness and rich colors.  The seed pods have dried out and are paperthin exposing their veins and cellular structures.  The Red Oaks are starting to drop some of their leaves as new buds start to form in their places and the even the weeds have dried and begun to release their dainty seeds to be spread by the wind.

I can’t wait. And it looks like even the snowmen have thrown in the towel for the season.  Perhaps spring is closer than we think. Can’t wait.

Warm and welcoming

I can’t think of a warmer welcome than this front porch on one of our Ginger Woods homes on Charter Oak Drive.  At about 6:45 am this morning Madelyne and I walked by this home and the porch lights were still on. The turret alone is quite a distinct feature of this model home, but this morning it looked so cozy and inviting.

Castle Porch

Both of us were shivering just a little and we both could see our breaths exhaling and drifting away from our mouthes.  As we turned the corner this porch immediately caught my eye because of the rich amber hues all aglow from the light over the door resonating the natural woods encasing the portico. The warm tones stood out against the gray stone and bricks and the snow on the ground and bushes.  I had to try and capture the moment.

Sun-drenched porch

Resonating Hues of Light

Not too far away on Red Maple Drive we came upon another home. The sun had risen just over the roof lines on the east side of the street and filtered through naked tree limbs and branches striking the front of the brick home a Neo-Classical porch.  Entirely different in desgin, yet it too has the same cozy and inviting feel as the home we encountered earlier.  Rather than an incandescent light illuminating the porch from above, this porch, although covered, is open and the orange-red light of the early morning sun resonated with the brown bricks.  When the leaves come back in the Spring, the suns rays will be splintered creating patterns and random splotches of light and shadow on the whole front elevation causing the home to take on a new sophsticated character.  Can ‘t wait.

Obvious or Cliche?

Like the Red Arrows on the 8×10 Glossy Photos in Arlo Guthries, Alice’s Restaurant, somethings are just plain obvious, yet they get labeled anyway. It is the end of the street.

stop already

There is a big yellow sign at the entry that says “No Outlet”.  When you get to the end of the street there are trees and bushes that are quite thick.  There is no place to go. Now that there is snow on the street, there is a pile of frozen slush 5 feet tall in front of the bushes.  But just in case that is not enough, there are 3 fire engine red diamond shaped metal signs alerting motorists that this is the end of the line.

The part of this that I find hilarious is that the metal posts are bent, dinged and all leaning in different directions. Despite the obvious motorists run into them! Talk about asleep at the wheel! It could be worse, I guess…. the diamond shapes could be riddled with shot gun holes.

Hey I’m Over Here!

Hey, over here!

This one cracks me up too!  Our fire hydrants are bright red. They are in the parkways of our streets and are in plain sight.  In Winter, red is overkill obvious.  All the dogs can find them with no problem regardless of how deep the snow is.  Apparently our concern for our pets is great because not only the hydrants painted red but there is a red flag 4 ft above them to make sure the dogs don’t miss them!

Metal Spider Web

Tunnels of the underworld

When all the ground is smooth and white with virgin snow and I come across something like this in the ground, in conjures up all sorts of images in my head.

First, it is just a fascinating image.

Second it makes me wonder what is down below the web made of snow?

Third, is it a giant metal spider web for some mechanical spider like a Transformer?  Fourth, are there tunnels underground housing aliens from another planet? Is this an air shaft for a colony of underground freaks waiting for Armageddon? These fresh air chamber intakes are all over the subdivision… some in the back yards of homes and some in the parkways. Still others are found in forest preserve and park areas.

These Ports are everywhere

I know that Madelyne likes to explore them with her nose and occasionally jumps back as if being spooked by something below the grill.

I remember as a kid watching the black and white sci-fi movies on Sunday afternoons.  One in particular scared me the most.  I can’t recall the name of it, but it was on TV in about 1959 and the flying saucers came down out of the sky and buried themselves under the sand dunes along the sea coast. When unsuspecting people would walk on the sand, a trap door would open and suck them down under the ground.  For a 6 year old, this was impressionable material regardless of the alien costumes having visible zippers in the back.  The feeling of excitement and the fear of watching the next scene and the uncertainty of whether to watch or cover my eyes was an unforgettable experience.  A little of those feelings creeps into my mind when peering into these dark chasms .

These might be the home of the creature that has made the mysterious smiley face signs in the snow we saw a month ago…

…..I’ve got to quit watching the SciFi Channel.

Hay stack in the back yard

Guiser of Color

Actually, it is more appropriate a Frozen Stiff Still Life.  Even the though the sun was out, the temperature was near zero. But clear crisp blue morning skies make for wonderful Nature images. This one in the back yard of a Ginger Woods Home on Katie Court is no exception.  When Madelyne and I came across this spot this morning the colors were most unusual to me.  Dark blue shadows, brilliant white snow, a powder blue sky off in the distance and the golden wheat-like bush.

The way the snow mounded up over the top of the ground cover plants and softly molded over the edges made the scene look like a sitll life guiser of golden color.  The bush seems to be bursting forth like Old Faithful and I happened to catch the action with a fast shutter speed on the camera.

Madelyne could have cared less about my excitement capturing this picture.  She had her nose buried in the snow sniffing for a mouse that she chased under the evergreens over a month ago.  She has a good memory for that sort of thing.

Long time waiting

I’m not much of a basketball fan. In fact,  I haven’t watched an entire game since Michael Jordan was with the Bulls.

Still waiting for Mike

That was one of the thoughts I had when Maedlyne and I came upon this hoop in the snow.  How long it has been since the game was played with such panoche as when Michael was on the court… and it will be a cold day in Ginger Woods before we see him return to the game.  The hoop here is testament to that thought.

Then another thought came to mind too.  Ginger Woods. A community named after trees and all the streets named after trees indigenous to the Big Woods Forest Preserve.  Most of the trees stand tall and proud and old. Others are young and thin. The weed trees grow wild and have all kinds of shapes.

Katie’s Court

Katie's Court

Then there is this foreign tree of metal and glass.  Standing equally as proud and tall and taking whatever weather is thrown at it.  It has a padded trunk and well rooted deep down in the ground as any real tree would need to survive the Midwest windy conditions.  It’s branches are trimmed to one side with uprights reaching skyward standing proud to be a part of the wooded community.  It is a specialized metal tree… a thing of beauty waiting for the dribble and swoosh sounds of it’s seasonal creatures to dance about it.  Perhaps the street is accurately named: Katie Court.