Winter Descends

Winter finally came to visit us in Lancaster County, PA.

 I had to rush out and get some photos this week. 

I am adding my favorite photos to Flickr every day.

Check my Flickriver for the newest images.

Warm Winter

Like much of the country, it's been unusually warm this winter (except for snow in October). Today it's supposed to get into the mid 50's. 

I still have all sorts of plants growing in the garden. Even the snowdrops are threatening to bloom. 

I love how the raindrops cling to the leaf hairs on the lupine leaf above. 

The photo below is my kale. I wasn't able to harvest any in the fall because bugs were eating the leaves. 

Perhaps we'll be able to eat some soon. I heard kale chips are yummy. 

 Look, I still have a flower in my garden! I can't believe this pretty primrose keeps chugging along.

This morning I was playing around a really high aperture to get a sunburst effect on the raindrops. 

I think my camera was set at f/20 for these. 

And this week I received the most adorable original Holiday Hummingbird painting I won from my 

friend Sandy Sandy's blog giveaway. Have I mentioned before that I'm lucky? 

Longwood Gardens in February

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Yay for groundhogs!

I don't know about you but I am sick to death of this winter. For once I was  happy about groundhogs when I heard that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow so that means an early spring (hoping and wishing and dreaming).

We had an ice storm last night and here is what I woke up to.

I'm sure the groundhogs would much rather prefer munching on my garden lettuce.

Since the husband was off from school yesterday, I was able to make these two signs, a chestnut dressage horse and a Gypsy Vanner. Gypsy horses look like they came out of a fairytale to me and all fairytale horses need flowers in their manes.

Since ebay fees are killing me, I'll offer these signs up for sale on my blog for a day or two before putting them on ebay. $45 for the Dressage SOLD (11" x 9") and $60 for the Gypsy (11" x 14") plus exact shipping.

Email me to purchase.

What I'd love to be doing now is taking a nap with Pumpkin Pie!

Raptors, rivers and other things...

Zoo America in Hershey, PA is free this weekend and being a huge fan of all things free, we had to make the short trek to check out the animals indigenous to North America in the 19 degree weather.

They have a lot of raptors which are always fun to watch.

Red-tailed Hawk

Burrowing owl. Looks like I've surprised him!

One of my favorites, the barn owl.

I need to make a painting of this adorable little screech owl.

Lovely bobcats seemed very relaxed.

Beautiful bison digs the chilly temps.

Next we managed to access to the Susquehanna River in the small town of Bainbridge, PA.

We were down stream from Three Mile Island where the river was less frozen.

Something ominous about a nuclear power plant like TMI.