We experienced our first winter storm down south here last Friday night, getting just an inch of snow, followed by sleet. When I woke up Saturday morning I didn’t see any birds, but there were little icicles dangling from the red mulberry tree branches and the rhododendron leaves. My little indoor owl ornament looked pretty in the bay window and the whimsical mushrooms in the garden looked different surrounded by white stuff with their own tiny icicles.
On Sunday we were supposed to attend a reception at the botanical garden for the Birds of North Carolina: A Community Photo Exhibit, but it was postponed until January 26th due to the inclement weather. I’ve been pretty excited because they accepted all four of my submissions, which I’ve added below. They’ve been posted here on the blog before, but they look even better hanging up in the gallery, enlarged to 8″x10″ size from the original number of pixels.
I couldn’t help noticing that all the pictures I selected to submit were taken in March. Looking forward to another spring month for bird photography!
Congrats on having your pretty birdies accepted for the exhibit, Barbara — I can only imagine how excited you’re going to be to see them again alongside the other submissions!
That ice looks dangerous. We’ve still got snow on the ground (no way it can melt when the temps haven’t gotten out of the 20s!). Bundle up out there!
Thank you, Debbie! The exhibit is open for January and February so we did get to see the pictures, it’s just the reception that was postponed. It was exciting seeing all the other bird photos, too, and seeing the shorebirds some submitted made me want to plan a trip to the Outer Banks.
Our temps got up into the 50s for a couple of days so the snow didn’t stick around like yours. I hope you and Monkey are keeping warm inside!
I am envious of your darling little indoor owl ornament stuffie! The whimsical colorful mushrooms are adorable. Are they glass or ceramic? And are they in your home garden or at the botanical gardens?
I am so happy that you submitted your photography! I kept telling you that your photos are just stunning. And now that you are in NC with new inspirations, there’s unlimited possibilities for you to capture such beautiful moments! I applaud that all four of your chosen artworks were accepted for the community photo exhibit!
I also noticed that all four were taken in March 2024. You and Tim were hopping around everywhere that month!! You got your snow wish come true and soon it will be glorious spring again.
It seems incredible that spring is only a couple of months away, as it arrives so much earlier down here. The mushrooms are ceramic and are here in my home garden. It was so interesting seeing the little icicles hanging off of them. (All the pictures were taken from inside the house!)
I didn’t know what to expect when I submitted those photos back in November, I was hoping they would accept even just one of them. And wondering, if they only picked one, which one it would be. It’s funny, when I was looking for the ones to put in this post I noticed other pictures I might have submitted if I was choosing now. My “favorites” keep changing!
Hope things are going well for you and Yorkie these short winter days.
Hello Barbara, yes things are going well for us. Both of us are feeling better health wise. I have been preparing for winter cold freezing rain to follow with snow and then a hard freeze returning to promise of sunshine with just plain cold for our week ahead. We truly only get a few days of winter here. The leaves have stopped falling. I am continuing to nourish the hummingbirds. I believe Joy had babies. Now I have Joy, Slim, Kelly Green (all girls), and Red (boy).
I plan to stay home during this week of winter and enjoy watching the sights out my windows!
That little Joy is something else, bringing four little ones into the world! I’m sure they bring you hours of delight, watching them outside your window. I hope the little family makes it through the hard freeze. So happy to know you’re prepared and all tucked in for your short blast of winter.
How exciting, both the weather and the gallery submissions! Congrats!
Thank you, Eliza!!
Congrats on your submission acceptances, Barbara, they are beautiful bird portraits! Glad you made it through the sleet, ice storms are worse than snow most times. We got another two inches of snow that day making our total 12″. Our area is not used to this much snow, lol.
Thank you very much, Donna! I know, the snow started just as it was getting dark and then when I heard the sleet hitting the windows at about 9pm my heart sank, there would be no walking out in the snow in the morning. You certainly have been getting more than your usual share of snow up there!
I had to wait a few days myself before I could try to venture, almost lost my boot in a 2′ drift I was determined to get through! Yes, the amount of snow we got is unusual for us.
Wow! It’s been ages since I’ve had to navigate 2′ snow drifts! Where were you headed with such determination? Probably looking for backyard bird photo opportunities!
Yes! I was trying to get to my woods trail and the whole backyard corner was where the snow had blown & drifted. I had to get through, to get to the marsh pond, hehe, for birdies and pond snow scenes. Even the wildlife weren’t using the trail area because it was too deep. They are now!
So you are an intrepid trailblazer for a host of grateful creatures! And I trust you were well rewarded for your efforts with some fabulous captures!
Well, you were missing Wintertime weather and you got just enough ice to create some beautiful icy photos – lucky you Barbara. And you are even luckier having your bird photographs in the exhibit – they are all beautiful and you should feel very proud of this accomplishment! I hope Mother Nature cooperates on the 26th!
Thank you, Linda!! Keeping my fingers crossed about the 26th for the reception, but the exhibit itself is open for all of January & February. We went to see it already so at least we got to see all 200 photos. Lots of great amateur photographers around here! Still hoping for snow that isn’t covered with ice so I can take a walk in it.
I hope you can get some photos from the actual exhibition Barbara and you’ll get a chance to sneak behind people admiring your photos and hear the nice comments. Well you are fitting right in with the other photographers then. Many years ago I won a prize for one of my photos. It was on the Scandinavian tour I took in 1983. You could submit photos that exemplified the trip that they might use in new Maupintour brochure about the tour. I submitted several and the two that won were a traditional Swedish house with a fence around it and a cow in the pasture which I called ‘Tranquility” and a picture of me enroute to Finland on a small ship with my life preserver on. I was surprised!
I will try to get a picture of the gallery with people in it for you. Congratulations on that photo prize you won so many years ago — what a wonderful memory to have. I’d love to see them — have you posted them on your blog in the past? I subscribe to a blog called My Scandinavian Home, written by a British woman (Niki Brantmark) who is married to a Swede and is living in Stockholm. I could look at the pictures of Swedish houses, indoors and outdoors, for hours. If only I could live in Scandinavia…
Okay, thank you Barbara. Thank you. It was a fun honor and I did do a post about it, not the trip per se but the two winning entries. I will send it to you in a separate comment. I was cleaning the basement after having all-house insulation put it in 2017 and there was a Rubbermaid tote filled with lots of treasures and I wrote about it. As you scroll down you’ll see the Swedish farm – you can’t miss it. Too bad it wasn’t one of the more colorful Swedish houses. I had a Swedish blogger I followed for a few years. He got ill and published sporadically, then stopped. He said he had to quit his job as he was perpetually tired. I wondered if he had Lyme Disease. He was a birder and used to ride his bike to work with his camera in his bike basket and always was taking photos in a field or a bird blind. His blog is no longer there. He used to bike everywhere.
Here is the post Barbara – you have to scroll near the bottom as I was pretty chatty here about what I found that day and took picture of some of the things. My two pictures were award-winning photos, but mostly since they were representative of our trip. I’ve been doing blog posts of “50 years ago this year” … this trip I took in 1983, so it will be a while to focus on the Scandinavian trip similar to yours in some respects.
https://lindaschaubblog.net/2017/09/19/tuesday-musings-29/
Thanks for the link, Linda! I will have fun scrolling down, I’m sure. What a great idea, finding pictures from 50 years ago and telling the story behind them. You’ve got me thinking about pulling out some old photo albums. My firstborn son will be 50 in December!
You’re welcome Barbara and I’m glad you enjoyed it. All kinds of little treasures from the past. You know you come home from a trip and hate to “let it go” … I bought a music tape in Greece, then played Greek bouzouki music on an 8-track player and my parents made me use the headphones. You should do that Barbara – you have 11 months to pull it together. You shared the picture of you and Tim on your wedding anniversary once and you and Beverly standing next to one another once – maybe Easter? The half-century mark makes it fun. I did the long post in June 2023 for all the things that happened in 1973 (high school graduation, first vacation without my parents, first car, starting school). When I turned 60, I went on a site to create a free collage and took about 30 thumbnail-sized pics from birth to around 2010 for my header photo. You could do the same thing, grabbing photos “through the years”.
How exciting to have your photos in an exhibit!! Congratulations!
As a former New Englander, I imagine you must find how the south deals with winter weather just a bit amusing!
I know someone who recently moved from Massachusetts to Tennessee and her daughter’s school has been canceled for the last TWO WEEKS due to the weather they are experiencing – which to me looks like some dustings of snow and a bit of ice. Stuff that might not even amount to a 2 hour delay around here!
Thank you, Karma!! I keep hearing about the 20 inches of snow they got here on January 25, 2000! They call that freak snowstorm the Raleigh Snowpocalypse and it blocked roads for days and closed schools for up to two weeks. The day before this little storm was our regular food shopping day and we were surprised at how mobbed the stores were. Our friendly cashier asked us if we were ready for the storm and I shrugged and said, “I guess. But we’re from Connecticut…” She then broke out in a huge smile and said, “I know, right? I’m from New York!”
It is pretty funny for sure. I guess southern states don’t invest in the equipment to deal with it like we do up north since they don’t need it as much. We got about 4-5″ last night. Just feels like winter.
And now, in an exciting twist of fate, the Outer Banks of NC are expecting 6 inches of snow today. “A rare sight at the Outer Banks has NCDOT trucks applying a brine solution along N.C. 12 — the main road through the islands.” But as you say, up north that would just be winter.