Just like children, the batch of kittens at the farm were outside last night trying to catch the snowflakes coming down. But besides catching snowflakes, they were also chasing each other and running under my vehicle and when the majority of the kittens are black and it was dark out, that doesn’t make for the the best combination. It is much easier to spot black kittens in the daylight on the white snow.
Black on White
Some winter sunsets can be pretty but they are also often very cold and the camera battery doesn’t last long in the colder temperatures (and sometimes the photographer doesn’t stay outside in the cold either).
Cold Winter Sunset
The temperature for yesterday’s Thanksgiving was the coldest since 1930. I sure would have rather be looking at the ice caves yesterday if it was going to be that cold instead of snowing snow in the very chilly air.
Icy Waterfall
It looks like this turkey is trying to sneak quietly through the woods to avoid being the main course at someone’s Thanksgiving dinner.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
This leaf has the same look I had yesterday when I was clearing the driveway and the snow blew right back into my face and I was covered in cold, white snow. I bet the leaf is wondering what happened to fall just like I am.
Snow Face Leaf
Watching the snow come down this morning makes it look more like Christmas than approaching Thanksgiving. I suppose some are happy to see the snow but I’m not ready for snow yet this year.
Winter Is Coming
At the end of the dog days of summer, it is almost hard to remember that six months ago I was dealing with minus 25 degree wind chills during a very cold winter in which most of Lake Superior was frozen over, as seen here from Houghton Point near Washburn, Wisconsin.
Houghton Point
It is rather depressing to see snowflakes flying in the air in the end of April. I don’t know if April snow showers will bring May flowers since the four wildflowers that have poked their heads up are keeping their blossoms closed up tight. The snow showers probably will freeze the poor little flowers. And I don’t think the bluebirds like the snow anymore than I do and hopefully they are huddling together in their birdhouse to keep warm.
Late April Snow Showers
Yesterday the ice broke up and quickly disappeared by the ice caves on Lake Superior near Cornucopia, Wisconsin. Last month people were still visiting the ice caves, walking on the frozen surface of Lake Superior and two months I had brave the cold weather to visit them too. I am glad I wasn’t on the ice when it broke up as the creaking and cracking was spooky enough when I taking pictures.
Click here to view the ice break from the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. (Click on the Next button to cycle through the ice break up pictures.) The webcam shot is looking out the opposite direction as the image below, so the cliff in the back on the left, is the same cliff on the right in the image below looking towards the webcam.
Frozen World
Many states are celebrating Arbor Day today, the last Friday of April. All 50 states celebrate Arbor Day although the dates may vary in keeping with the local climate. The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton, a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.
Morton felt that Nebraska’s landscape would benefit from the wide-scale planting of trees for wind breaks. When he became a member of Nebraska’s state board of agriculture, he proposed that a special day be set aside dedicated to tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees. More than one million trees were planted on Nebraska’s first Arbor Day.
I’m glad my squirrels forget where they bury all their acorns so they plant new oak trees for me as most of my old oaks are getting hollow and blowing down.
Old Oak Tree
