It is too cold to walk in the woods today so I will be lazy and repost this photo taken three years ago given that it is essentially identical to what I would find if I were braver and went outside. At this time of year we often have very cold but bright and sunny days and there is as much snow hanging now on the branches as I have ever seen. Forgive my laziness please - I'll give you a more contemporary view when it gets above -25C. It also provides me with an excuse to post one of my great uncle's poems again ... I am probably his biggest fan :) Uncle Will, as my father called him, was a minor Welsh poet relatively well known in the U.K. who had a resurgence in popularity in the 1960's with the 'Hippie' movement. His poem entitled "Leisure" is his most famous and he has gained some notoriety as a 'nature poet' although I'm not sure if he were alive today that he would agree with the title?

WINTER'S BEAUTY

Is it not fine to walk in spring,
When leaves are born, and hear birds sing?
And when they lose their singing powers,
In summer, watch the bees at flowers?
Is it not fine, when summer's past,
To have the leaves, no longer fast,
Biting my heel where'er I go,
Or dancing lightly on my toe?
Now winter's here and rivers freeze;
As I walk out I see the trees,
Wherein the pretty squirrels sleep,
All standing in the snow so deep:
And every twig, however small,
Is blossomed white and beautiful.
Then welcome, winter, with thy power
To make this tree a big white flower;
To make this tree a lovely sight,
With fifty brown arms draped in white,
While thousands of small fingers show
In soft white gloves of purest snow.

W.H. Davies

Tags:   Canadapt snow tree forest New Years Day poem winter W.H. Davies

© All Rights Reserved

Brought forward from May 29, 2012
*********************************************

Forest Fire Abstraction #2 - "WE ARE HOME!" We will be seeing a lot of scenes like this one in our forest this coming winter. I bring this photograph forward from my photostream to suit the circumstances. We have returned after our forced evacuation from our home at Keefer Lake due to one of the largest forest fires in Ontario's history ... 75km long and 8km. wide ... over 30,000 hectares ... the fire came within 4km. of our house but fortunately because of a change in the wind it never came any closer. We are allowed back into our home after 9 days of forced evacuation ... all of us in the area are still on alert and may have to evacuate again if the conditions change as the fire is not yet out and probably won't be completely secure for several weeks. There is a strong smell of smoke in the air but otherwise all is eerily the same.

There is nothing quite like having the police knock on your door at 1am and being told you have one hour to get out of your house and seeing the entire southern sky glowing red with strong winds blowing smoke and ash your way to give one perspective on what is important in life. In the short time we had to pack our vehicle we took some of our art, some family photographs, an external hard drive with all of our data - including photographs - a few changes of clothes and, of course, our dogs! I am so thankful that our house and our beloved Keefer Lake is untouched to this point and I can only hope it will remain so as the fire is brought under control. Cheers to the men and women risking everything to fight this very large and difficult forest fire even as I am writing this account of 10 days in the life of Keefer Lake.

I shall strive to catch up with all of your fine photography that I have missed this past while. I see Flickr hasn't cured the fuzziness and blur - please view in Lightbox to see the photo as it was meant to be seen.

Tags:   forest fire snow abstract Canadapt tree black white VanaGram Ontario return home

© All Rights Reserved

OK, OK ... after the deluge of mail (1 only) and the cacophony of pleading (just 1 again) I have reluctantly agreed to post just one more in the "Forest Abstracts" series. (Since I don't have anything recent, I will surreptitiously bring forward an old chestnut in the photostream and the hordes of fellow photographers that are craving more (just 1 only) will be none the wiser, nudge, nudge - wink, wink, say no more!)

On the chance that it's too abstract for all of you I will reveal that it is a photo of the remnants of a forest fire and in the interest of furthering Nathan's therapy to overcome his fear of colour - I must cautiously and quietly point out that the photo is not black and white but indeed, it is "full living colour" - as the Disney folk used to say. As part of his systematic desensitization training, if any of you have photos that appear to be B&W at first glance but are actually in colour be sure to forward a copy to Nathan. (For those viewing this that haven't met Nathan yet, well you will just have to look at all of these awful forest abstracts that I have been posting to figure it out - "a sly and cunning way to up my Flickr stats" you say - "I wouldn't dare be so underhanded" say I :)

For those of you who saw this before and have to suffer viewing it yet again - a profound apology - and for those seeing it for the first time - perhaps I owe you an apology too!

BTW, it does look a bit better on a black background ---- if you have a notion to push the "L" key, go right ahead ... Cheers!

Tags:   forest fire tree burn branch trunk abstract not black and white Ontario Canada Canadapt

© All Rights Reserved

Tags:   sky cloud prairie Saskatchewan Canada ABigFave cans2s TheUnforgettablePictures Canadapt BlueRibbonWinner Challenge You winner elitegalleryaoi

© All Rights Reserved

Bringing this forward for St. Patrick's Day ... it has been in my Flickr photostream for almost as long as I have been a member of Flickr.

*********************************************
A green photo in celebration of St. Patrick's Day!

Tags:   St.PatricksDay sheep green clouds grass country farmland countryside landscape Canadapt pastoral GoldStarAward PlatinumHeartAward You vs The Best ThePinnacleHoF

© All Rights Reserved