Icicle and Photoshop

We had quite a few icicles hanging from our gutters as the snow melted and the temperature stayed cold. Up close, the icicle acts as an uneven lens, collecting light from its surroundings. The stripes in the flag hanging near this one show up as lines when you look closely.

And when I used Photoshop effect of glowing edges, the lines appeared on a dark field.

Adjusting the red level in the image, the background is a red glow and the imperfections in the surface are more pronounced.

And here is the larger portion with glowing edges and red level adjusted.

Squirrel hide and seek

You can't see me!

Now you can!

Where's the cat?

And now there are four

Icicle and drop

Melting snow left us with many icicles hanging from the gutter. I caught the drop from one against a background of the window and hood of our van.

And more snow

The snow arrives

The snow began here around 11 PM December 18. Heavy snow is expected Saturday, with 1 to 2 feet by Sunday morning and with cold temperatures may leave us with a white Christmas. The bench is on our porch.

Snow and fence

Early morning December 6 after the night's snow fall.

After the snow

After the snow Tuesday night came the rain - almost an inch and a half. Wednesday morning was cool and foggy and by afternoon, the creek across the field could be seen well out of its banks. According to the Frederick News Post more than a dozen roads in the county were closed due to high water.

Night snow

The storm that raced across the USA leaving lots of people digging out of mounds of snow only dropped a little snow here. As on 1:00 AM Wednesday the snow has changed to rain and a flood watch has been issued.

Grandsons

Posing

Susan and family were here for Thanksgiving with my two youngest grandsons, Winston 3 years and Lewis 6 months. These are their Christmas outfits and we took the opportunity to pose them together. They will be visiting Santa to have more pictures taken soon. More shots of them next week on Lew's Other Pics.

Trying to get Winston's' car

Laughing

Tickling

Hugs

Frederick at night

Under the suspension bridge over Carroll Creek

Under construction - parking garage

Delaplaine Arts Center from creek

Benches by the creek

Sunrise, fog and tree

This was the view across our backyard this morning about a half-hour after sunrise.

Verified words? - 10-th edition

Here are more of the "word verifications" I spotted while commenting on blogs; along with my impression of their meaning. Each one has been verified against dictionary.com and wikipedia. First edition was posted as Round 1. Today's words:

untru
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "untrue"
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "until"
Lew's definition: un-tru - most of the arguments about healthcare reform

phyphyli
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "hyphal"
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "pamphylia"
Lew's definition: phy-phy-li - What the Yankees said after game 6.

etrod
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "trod".
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "etrog".
Lew's definition: e-t-rod - a 1940 ford equipped for travel to Mars and beyond.

Little John Deere

A comment by Moe reminded me that I had more tractor images to post. This little Deere was at the Rose Hill Manor Fall Festival and was a delight, especially to the younger set. The youngster approaching the tractor was quite surprised when Oscar turned to face him. The sign says owned by 'John', driven by Oscar. John actually drove the tractor and controlled Oscar's movement from his chair in the wagon. More tractors on my PhotoHunts of October 10 and October 17.

Oscar poses for the camera

Carroll Creek - revisited

Shops and offices along the creek

On Friday we stopped by Carroll Creek to enjoy the scenery, grab a bite of lunch, and take a few photos. It was a beautiful day, though the breeze made it a little nippy. The light spots on the wall in the image below are sunlight reflected in the windows shown in the above picture.

Reflections

Suspension pedestrian bridge

Fall rose bud

Rose bud - November 4, 2009

Halloween night

The black cat on our lamp post

A neighbor's happy tree and jack-o-lanterns

The goblins in our window by the door

See more Halloween photos in Window Views and in My world Tuesday on November 3.

Rain and falling leaves

We have had fast changing weather patterns the past week, with more on the way. Here are some shots taken yesterday after a night of rain. Three from early morning, one mid-day with sun, and the last as the clouds return. With the wind and rain, I now need a couple of dry days to do some raking.

Fall colors

After a rain Friday and Saturday, today was bright and sunny. The trees here have finally donned their fall attire!

Wind and rain

Wind's a blowing!

Rain's a coming!

Wind and rain together!

Contrail shadow

Did you ever see the shadow of a contrail? I spotted is one Tuesday afternoon. This one is on the flight pattern of planes heading west from Baltimore. With the sun low in the sky and high clouds, the shadow of the contrail was visible on the clouds.

Verified words? - 9-th edition

Here are more of the "word verifications" I spotted while commenting on blogs; along with my impression of their meaning. Each one has been verified against dictionary.com and wikipedia. First edition was posted as Round 1. Today's words:

ruffleas
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "ruffles "
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "ruffles"
Lew's definition: ruf-fleas - don't mess with these little pests, they bite!

fletag
dictionary.com - NOT a word, suggested "flotage"
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "flag"
Lew's definition: fle-tag - what ruffleas play on your ankles.

tochek
dictionary.com - NOT a word, no suggestions
wikipedia - NOT a word, suggested "touche".
Lew's definition: to-chek - what one should do to spelling before posting.

Wet and yellow

We bought some mums again this year. This bunch provides a dash of color on a rainy Thursday.

Then and Now - Corn harvest

Back then, corn harvesting was a very labor-intensive job, even with the machines of the early twentieth century. At the Rose Hill Manor / Farm Musem fall festival some of the early machinery to aid the harvest was demonstrated. There are three steps: cut the corn, remove the shucks, and shell the corn. I did not see how they cut the corn in the field, but it was brought to the shucker on a wagon. This old corn shucker is powered by a belt driven by a tractor. Corn, stalks and all, is fed into shucker. Corn on the cob comes out green tube on the right and drops into a wagon; chopped stalks and shucks come out the pipe on the left.

This corn sheller is even older than the shucker. It is belt driven, powered by a one-cylinder engine. The corn is fed (again manually) into the trough on the right. Kernels of corn come out the white tube. The cobs ride up the trough on the left.

Now, this machine cuts 6 rows of corn, shucks it, shells it and leaves the waste in the field for compost. When its internal bin is full, it stops by the truck in the far end of the field and unloads the corn and goes back across the field.