Five on the fifth: winter weekend

Steven Chapman says:

"Take 5 photographs on the days leading up to the 5th and publish those on your own blog and then add the link to my blog,  State of the Nation UK so that others can see your images.

This month's theme is WINTER WEEKEND.   We've had a week of temperatures in the -10 to -20 Celcius range (at night) and a scant six inches of snow, so it finally seems a little bit wintery here.  Winter is my favourite season as all the recreational activities which I enjoy the most are winter sports.

On Saturday, my little dogs enjoyed skittering on the ice on a little pond behind my house.   I love the action in this shot.  Too bad I dropped my camera in the snow and smudged the lens.

Sunday:  Ice Capades, here I come!

I get the greatest pleasure when skating on natural ice in a beautiful setting.  We get very few opportunities to do this as the pond ice is often too cracked and bumpy for skating or it is soon covered with several feet of snow.  About three centimeters of snow fell overnight, but the skating was still great.

Sadly, I skated alone as both kids were at their mother's house, so these are both self-timer shots.  My kids and I will skate a bit next week after school and work.

I plan to skate as often as possible as time permits.   I could use the fresh air and exercise and I just love skating in the outdoors.   

My son and I went to my waterfront house for the afternoon.  We moved some of my stuff out and brought some of my wife's stuff to her new home. 

Had I snapped the picture about two seconds sooner, this would have been a picture of a buck (male deer) with an impressive rack of antlers. He was eating the dried apples still clinging to the tree in my back yard.

5 on the fifth

Steven Chapman says: 

"Take 5 photographs on the days leading up to the 5th and publish those on your own blog and then add the link to my blog,  State of the Nation UK so that others can see your images. "

You can either take 5 random pictures or follow this months theme, which is: NEW

I've decided to take pictures of all the NEW flowers which are suddenly appearing in my yard. It has been a very cold spring here (temperatures near freezing on some nights) but today is very sunny.   I was tempted to get off my sickbed couch and take a careful stroll around the yard.

We'll get a bushel or two of pears from this tree.

Lady's mantle with some Oriental poppies just about to bloom.

Pink flowering crabapple tree in full bloom.

I love the black currants which come from this bush.

Little patch of dwarf irises almost finished blooming,.

Bleeding hearts:  as kids, we used to enjoy eating the white part in the middle.

Five on the Fifth

Stephen Chapman in his blog “The State Of The Nation UK”, has a monthly feature called “Five on the Fifth” in which bloggers may participate by posting five photos on their blog and exchanging links with his.  The five pictures, taken in the days leading up to the fifth of the month, may be random or may follow his suggested theme, which this month is “Clothes” or “Happy”.

All are invited to participate.

My theme is clothes. It was a pleasant changed of pace, posting pics of me that are not bare-assed or somehow showing lots of skin.  Four of the five pictures were taken this week.

Our first sunny, balmy weather of the spring (6 C, 42 F!)  As if by magic,  the summer boys wearing shorts and girls in Daisy Dukes suddenly were out in droves.  Those of us who live in cold climates wait a very long time for the slightest bit of "warm" weather and take full advantage of it when it arrives.

Here's me relaxing by the slough (pronounced "slew") behind my house in my favourite camo shorts.  Slough is a western Canadian term for pond or swamp.  I won't be able to do this much longer.  In several weeks   there will be swarms of mosquitoes sucking the blood out of you.


My favourite look:  black Tee, jeans and boots.

Off to work!

Sleeping in boxers tonight

March 25:  Spo-shirt