After putting up with snow, and white, all winter, and half of spring, you'd think I'd be tired of it.  But nooo, here is some more white.

Buds - pretty pink

Tree 1 - detail

Tree 2 - this actually had a ring of flowers around an opening.  My picture just didn't capture it correctly

Bunny - he just wanted me to take his picture

Hi all,

I bought some extension tubes for the Canon XT and these photos are my first using them. I used the 13 mm extension tube on the first three with the lens set at 55 mm, tripod mounted and used the mirror up function and waited patiently for the breeze to die down and snapped the photos. The last one, 4273, I just used the lens only in macro mode without the tube and still got my closeup. I'm really happy with the purchase and will be doing a lot of closeup work in the yard this spring summer and fall. I took a few days to complete this as I cannot hurry mother nature but I enjoyed this small project. 4260 ,  4262 ,  4263 ,  A white Star Manolia is born .

Duneshot

just hang around and it will change.

Was bragging about the nice  weather and looked what happened.

OK we're Back to Spring - - - - -

 Back to Spring 1 

 Back to Spring 2 

 Back to Spring 3 

 Back to Spring 4 

During some good weather, I went to the local flower garden.  Some pictures.

Daffodil 1

Daffodil 2

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I was back in Michigan's UP last summer for my uncle's funeral and I found this old photo of his barn. This was taken by him and given to me many years ago. 1972 I think. I,m glad we don't have winters like this.   old barn .

Took this  winter shot in November.  Came by the same spot the other day and got this  spring edition. The great late day backlight caught my attention. It was a little difficult to get the exact position and spot but it worked well.  I had taken a printout of the winter capture to help find that exact spot. Hope you enjoy and thanks for dropping in.

Here is an easy  comparison 

and back to spring.

Typical spring shots, no more snow (I hope!)

Violets 1.

Violets 2.

Dandelion (thumb)

Working in the yard.  Every day is like Christmas, you never know just what will show up next.
Like these  Flower shoots.  Anybody has any idea what I should expect?

PS, note to self, and others:  Take pictures before mowing.  I don't know how many violets I chopped off.

Got off work this morning and more of this white stuff.  Fortunately it is melting during the day, so there isn't all that much accumulation.

Snow 3 - detail of snow on some evergreens, converted to B/W.  It was pretty much B/W anyway.

Snow 4 - snowy scene

Snow 5 - snow on tree with red brick background.

Snow 5.5  -  edited for Mack

Well, the record setting storm struck last night.  I've been in worse storms, but this one came in too late to really enjoy.

Taken on the the walk back to the car.

Our garden.  Fortunately they'll recover.

On a hike the other wkend came across an old house that had what I classified as possbile protection from big critters attempting to get through window..... guard ..what do you think?

Enjoy the gorgeous afternoon--or at least it is in my part of the country....

Sorry, after posting and then view the photo, you will probably need to hit CtrlN in order to see the 'guard'....

Moving is taking up more and more of my time.
I did take this shot, with the P&S, of a room we're converting over to the duck room.

Well, it's a start.

I volunteer at a local conservation area and this last weekend a group of us headed off to visit some of the Dept of Conservation attractions in southern Missouri.  First stop was Prairie State Park for a Bison Hike where we saw Bison and finally a  Bison herd.  Stopped to view the  Widest Waterfall in Missouri and found the cutest, fattest  Cotton Rat gorging himself on sunflower seeds falling from a bird feeder.

Camera info:  all shots taken using a 55-200mm zoom lens with auto-stabilization, handheld.  For Bison shots used a Cokin graduated neutral density filter to keep from overexposing the sky

 When looking up while hiking the other wkend I liked the way the sun was hitting the trees      reaching upward ..

Enjoy the rest of the evening......

This should be  the   last   ice   storm   of  the winter!!

We're Hopeing!