Evening Light...

Dog Chapel

We visited Stephen Huneck's Dog Chapel in St. Johnsbury today. It sounds a little strange - a chapel devoted to dogs (and cats) but it is incredibly lovely and heartwarming. Here is a shot of some dogs outside the chapel.

Fern...

Maple Skyline

Speak of the devil...

Not one hour after posting the tree picture below, we looked out to find a Pileated Woodpecker making a new hole in the very same tree! We looked it up and it was almost exactly a year ago that he (or one of his brothers) first visited us.

This picture was taken with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second - his head is moving!

Tree

I love this old maple tree behind our house. It's gracefully reaching the end of it's long life. A pileated woodpecker has gone to town on it in a couple spots making small (actually some are quite large) homes for other smaller creatures. If we are very very lucky we'll get a family of flickers to nest in it.

Morning Barn...

Morning shot of one of my favorite barns with the moon about to call it a night...

Cardinal Zin...

Another spotting of a cardinal in the area... Hope to see more of them through the summer.

Snow Rider...

A cyclist taking on yesterday's snowstorm...

Spring water...

The Union Village covered bridge on a cool March morning...

Snow Fence, Interstate, and Sky...

Deva and Buddha...

She is a most amazing cat...

Happy Birthday Patrick...

My nephew Patrick would be 28 tomorrow were it not for the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000. I wonder what he would be up to on his birthday; I bet it would be fun and probably a bit of trouble! I miss you Pat.

Take Off...

Another shot that didn't get to the photo contest - I love this picture of the cargo plane lifting off the flower...

Spring? Baseball?

A shot from last Spring in South Royalton showing a small part of the beauty of Spring baseball in New England...

Cat in a Winter Window...

Summer Sunflowers...

In the last week, we've been busy trying to find pictures from the last year to submit to the local paper's photo contest. A number of our favorite pictures unfortunately didn't work well in the required 8x10 aspect ratio so I thought I'd get some of them up on the blog. These pictures were taken late in the summer and late in the day on in a beautiful field of sunflowers.

Winter Cardinal

We have caught quick glimpses of a cardinal or two lately. Today in the snowstorm I was able to get close enough for this shot. This appears to be a female but we think we've seen a male as well. Hope that they stick around this summer!

More Deer...

This beauty was munching on the remnants of last summer's brown eyed susans...

Busted!

I managed to get this shot through the window though she seemed to have a bead on me as well...

Morning Finches

There are hundreds of finches who visit us through the day, enjoying the black oil sunflower seed we put out every morning. They generally fly away in droves when we open the door to go out. These brave souls tolerated our presence enough for quick snap in the dull morning light.

Vermont Church...

I took this shot this past weekend of one of my favorite spots around here: the church in West Fairlee Center.

Winter Panorama...

Another beautiful morning here in Vermont...

Snow in Hanover...

We got a good snowfall the other day - close to 14" I think. Hanover cleaned up nicely though there were some big piles downtown...

Another Snowy View...

Yesterday's snow was hanging on today's trees. When the sun finally came out, it was a beautiful sight.

More Snow...

It's snowing again here in Vermont. I took this shot across a snowy field of one of my favorite barns. It's really coming down, but at least the temperature is above zero!

Snow and Sun...

Another shot from my walk in the snow. The sun was slowly coming through the clouds...

Barbed Wire in Snow...

I took a brief walk on snowshoes this past weekend as the snowfall was winding down. This mean old barbed wire fence looked just a bit more approachable in the soft new snow.

Sunrise Redux!

Alain Briot, of whom I learned through his inspirational book Mastering Landscape Photography, was kind enough to comment on yesterday's Sunrise photo and to offer this alternative interpretation. Alain offers fine art and instruction at his site Beautiful-Landscape.com. Thanks Alain!

Sunrise

The first rays of sun hitting the hills across the way...

Clouds...

The day started very clear and cold and then gave way to some beautiful clouds...

Mean Cat?

Deva practicing her mean look...

Sunset Colors

I wish that I had been able to shoot this properly with a tripod as my hands were not steady enough. Nevertheless these colors remind me that over saturation does not always mean something has been Photoshopped!

Very Quiet Chairs...

Snow!!

It's been an exciting couple of days as Mother Nature is insuring that we have White Christmas!

Blue Ice...

Icy...

Icy Moon...

More frost...

Frost on the car...

Nature is amazing...

Gilman Pond...

Next chapter...

Strange Motion...

I tried to slow this shot of the rugosa rose bush being whipped by the fall winds. It wasn't what I had envisioned but turned out interesting nonetheless...

Fall Panorama...redux

Red Sky in the Morning... redux

Sun on Gilman Pond...

Drizzle on Gilman Pond...

Deep Blue...

A very clear cool morning here with a deep blue sky. The foliage has moved on...