I opened my eyes to see Sue standing near my chair over by the coffee maker. Quelle surprise! I looked at the clock. It was almost 7:30: also a surprise. Sue had been wondering what to do because she needed her morning coffee, but as usual I had set mine up the night before. Awake now, I told her just to press the button to make mine since I was now awake.
What an unusual beginning to the day because, as I reported yesterday, I am usually, as in 364 days of the year, up well before my beloved, often hours before.
Siri, via my sleep app, reported that I had just over seven hours of sleep, but I think she cheated me out of an hour (the gal ain't perfect!), so let's call it eight. Millions of people get eight almost every night, but I only manage it once or twice per year, so I want to claim every darn second.
It was a cold morning, colder than zero Fahrenheit. We simply call it the Old Zero. So what could we do for our daily outing in those temperatures?
Cold weather can really drain batteries, so we felt that we needed to give Hermione the Honda a better run than piddling around town. So, we headed up to Almonte.
While walking in Almonte, despite the frigid temperature, we weren't overly cold because we know all about layering. However, you can't really layer your hands, and when you want to take pictures, you do need to remove your gloves. (You may recall that I lost my photo gloves with the peelable finger tips last winter.)
Sue was looking for high contrast photos. I pointed to this wonderful verandah with all of the shadows, but she didn't much care for it. I don't mind it though. It suits the high contrast theme for sure, and it is a darn, eye-catching structure, hanging over the main street.
We walked down to the waterfalls and saw that they had iced up wonderfully. I took a couple of pretty quick photos. With a somewhat less cold day and proper equipment, one could do a great study, but I am happy enough to get a couple of hit-and-run snaps. They are highly cropped in post because I couldn't focus tightly enough to isolate the good parts with my normal lens.
I confess that we were pretty darn eager to return to the car to warm our freezing digits. Afterall, digital photography is not meant to be about frozen digits.
22 comments:
Oh I do envy you getting 8, even 7 hours of solid sleep. I like your photos; the frozen falls, brrr. What did Sue finally decide on for contrast? Your verandah example has a lot going on in it.
The verandah could make a good jigsaw puzzle!
Those waterfalls are amazing. I like the verandah too.
Well done! I think you enjoy Sue's assignments as much as she does!
Loved all of these, for different reasons of course. To see a waterfall mostly ice, what a great opportunity. But keeping warm so you don't frostbite those fingers is also important. Good for you for long sleep. Obviously it helped your creativity!
Hurray for sleep! A rare treat for you indeed. I have been debating whether to go for our walk today, as it is just 10 and feels so very cold. But here you are, out and about! The waterfall is a rare sight for me, love it.
I love that town. My friend and I try to visit at least once a year for one of the nice festivals.
I too had a fantastic sleep last night, midnight to 9AM. Some kind of miracle. My beloved asked me if I heard the cats scrapping loudly in the night. Nope!
Thank goodness it has warmed up some today. Pleased to see the big outdoor thermometer on the back porch creep above -10.
It is possible to freeze z few digits off in that cold, AC. Great shots of the falls.
The frozen falls are wonderful. Frozen fingers not so much.
I too like the veranda, but the frozen falls are my favorite. :-)
The bottom two images are stellar. Very impressed!
Beautiful veranda; beautiful falls.
Well, the fancy ice covering the waterfall would make anybody feel cold.
Gorgeous waterfalls!
The veranda is quite interesting.
Fingers crossed you have more nights of longer sleep!
I tend to get 6 hours of sleep which is awful. I keep trying to get back to sleep but nothing works. I'm envious of your 8 hours. How wonderful that you and Sue have this wonderful photo hobby to enjoy together.
What a treat to get 8 hours! I probably get mostly that except for my cat, who makes me get up at 5 am to let her out of Cat Jail. Usually I can go back to sleep for a few hours after that, but I doubt that it's restful sleep. I love the photos; they are stunning!
They might have jobs in the Artic for a photo-couple! Wear those blue nitrile nurse exam gloves first, then put on your gloves. When you take your gloves off for the pic, your fingertips stay alive. I have a pair of tip removeable gloves/mittens that I got at a 7-11 store, and I can't find another pair like it. Having the thumb tip flip off helps dexterity too. Linda in Kansas
Yes, Almonte is a great run, and the waterfall you captured is lovely. Still cold today, with sun, though.
Hmm. Maybe time for new photo gloves? I have mitts with a sort of pocket that goes over all the fingers, held with velcro. The thumb is covered, but I cut the top off on my left hand.
Fun story about that hand. I burned my index finger a while ago and it is still callused. (Is that a word?) I was having a medical test that involved the measuring device for blood oxygen that is clipped to a finger. they put the device on the callused finger and there was panic and I was hooked to oxygen, because it did not read. When I figured that out, the device was moved to a normal finger and everyone relaxed.
Haha. Yes, it does look extremely frigid up there. Not a day for *this* old guy to be out wandering, that's for sure.
Very happy you had some quality uninterrupted sleep. Also, jealous.
Perhaps the thing that guarantees sleep is complaining on your blog that you don't get it! Today I slept until after 9. I shocked myself.
The falls are beautiful. So is that verandah!
Those are all gorgeous. Absolutely frigid, but gorgeous!
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