Christmas

Boris outdid himself, creating a massive carved shoe rack for Jo and dragging home an immense lathe for me. The stand is impressive, with cast iron legs linked by huge threaded rods running through steel pipes. He put it together in the tractor shed, and there it is. Most of it seems to be pieced together out of various pieces of steel stock--though the legs bear the name "Allen" and seem the right dimensions for a lathe stand. About the rest, I'm not so sure. Boris reports that it spun a two-by-four lustily, and then flung it across the room.

As I left the shed, I was startled to find the upper storey of the house illuminated as though by a spotlight. Against a sombre sky, the setting sun was striking upwards.

It lit up the tops of the elm and the larches, leaving the pines strikingly dark beneath them. As always, it was a fleeting effect, largely vanishing before I could dig out my camera.

Ice Storm

The ice storm was bad enough to make driving unthinkable. Ice began to collect on the wires, but the temperature rose and they shed their load quite quickly.

The apple tree still carries its fruit. We should have harvested them properly. Next year, with the pine well cut back, we will tend them properly--the tree is so bountiful, after all, and the apples so good.

It was hard on the trees while it lasted; the white pines were badly hit, as was the red oak. Next morning, the roads were passable, though marred by shelves of stubborn ice. We stopped at the church on the way home and I fixed the organ--it was the usual problem with the bulb in the expression pedal photocell having burned out.

Highs and Lows

On Friday it was -23.5; today, Sunday, it is 0. All the little cobwebs have frozen in the eaves.

I tried to drive down to the church to fix the organ. I got as far as the Williamsburg road and I was sideslipping like mad. Turning around was easy: I cranked the wheel and hit the gas. I had to bash through the dense slush berm at the foot of the driveway.




On the night of the 14th, the Geminids were supposed to be near their peak. I clumped around trying to get a shot but finding nothing but a bright moon and the fixed stars. Eventually I realized I was facing West, not East. This didn't help. I discovered the 24mm could capture smoke from the chimneys that I could not see in the dark. Next time I will use a tripod.

Birthday Boy

I have a new Rokinon 24mm 1.4 lens--and I tried my hand at some morning sky shots. Mostly rubbish, but I think this is going to be a VERY interesting addition to the stable.

These are the morning stars, partly flared out by the rising sun. From the window, the sky looked totally black. It was strange that the lens found so much colour.

It was remarkable--the black night sky turned blue. I'm still fumbling around with this thing, but I think there are interesting possibilities.








I didn't take this on purpose, but it looks just strange enough to keep. There's a vaguely Darth Vader vibe here.

Ice Curls

I woke up to this: ice curls. Here we have snow with its own interior lighting. It was warm enough to keep the whole sheet slowly slipping down the roof, but it kept freezing as the lower edge was exposed to the air. On the lower end, it was already pressing against the glass.

Notice the upstairs dormer with its wrap-around shades. With those blinkers on, we can be sure it won't shy at any white picket fences (not that they'd be visible).

 I squeezed underneath the overhanging mass and gave it a solid shove as high as I could reach. I thought I might clear the section above the door, but the whole sheet broke off and collapsed. Whew!

Snow Days

After 48 hours of snow, the schools and universities finally all closed. The roads were covered with treacherous layers of ice and slush--Jo did a 360 on the McLaggan Flats, and ended up the wrong way round on the wrong side of the road. We put in a hard afternoon's shoveling, and I brought out the snowblower--which started very readily, once I remembered to turn on the gas valve. In the morning, we found that a thick mass of snow had curled over the edge of the sunporch roof and was pressing against the glass. I brought it all down with one heave. And now it looks as though we might finally see the sun again.