Snow: Birds and Landscapes

This morning I managed to do some de-cluttering in the vicinity of my desk.  That led to going through more magazines and tearing out what I thought was promising and throwing away the rest.  And that led to cutting old computer print-outs (printed on one side only) into quarters for our home-made notepads (bound with rubber bands - some recycled from vegetables).  I don't win any stars for recycling as much as I should, but I do try to do as much as we can tolerate.  That little bit tired me out; it's terrible how much a simple cold can lay one flat!  If I were still working, of course I would be going in to school (and spreading germs all over with abandon), but since I don't have to, I find myself giving in and allowing myself to take it easy.

 

As I was occupied with taking it easy, I thought of the many things I had planned to do these first few weeks of January.  My hand-pieced churn dash sampler blocks have been machine sewn together and are waiting for a few simple borders.  They continue to wait.  A project started aeons ago that I call Beach Cabanas needs only one more simple block before it can be sewn together.  It continues to wait.  Four new pillowcases for which the material has been washed are waiting to be made.  We will continue to live without them.  My pen and ink snow sketches that I wanted to work on and possibly learn how to draw snow?  They sit idly in my mind.

 

But I do have a few photos to share from the heavy snow we had last week.

 

Looking into the woods past a birdhouse and D's hop poles (on the right).

Looking at how the snow covers the tops of the branches pulling them down and how the needle fan out like a tapestry.  Against a white background of more snow, how do you draw that?

Such graceful branches with whippets of branches leaping back as if to avoid the cold or show off their youthful suppleness.  See how the snow covers some parts of the branches while leaving some other sections bare?  Again, how can I portray the weight of the snow that bows some branches while showing the dusting on the facing edge of the upright twiglets?

 

This is a photo I love although I know it's not very good; a professional would have know how to capture this scene of cardinal on the ground and the squirrel on the park bench.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see the gleam in the squirrel's eye that shows where he is.

 

Cardinal, house finch, and two squirrels looking for dropped seeds beneath the bird feeders.

 

Cardinal in the forsythia bush; who can resist that splash of color in a winter landscape?

 

Red-tailed hawk on the ground under the spruce trees at the back of our property.  He caught some little critter and was enjoying his meal.  It's his nature so I didn't disturb him (the critter was already dead) and took this picture from inside the house through the window.