Monthly Archives: April 2014

Behind the photo…

It appears that spring has truly arrived.  We listen with joy to the bird songs that fill the air, watch with delight the crocuses that withstood the long winter to put out their splendid array of colours, and wish a temporary good-bye to the rapidly diminishing piles of snow.  It seems strange, almost, to think that our most recent snowfall was just last week!

And for the interested readers, here is the answer to the “deep snowdrifts” picture in the last post…  A simple tire track drew my attention that day as I sought a unique perspective.  My getting down as low as possible gave the resulting picture the illusion of a much greater depth of snow than was really there.

20140416_EJF_2362

“Creativity ~ Approaching a need, a task, an idea from a new perspective.” Institute in Basic Life Principles

Spring is here … or is it?

For a while, it looked like we might really have seen the end of winter. Monday, the temperature soared to 24 C – practically summer! A few of us, however, still kept on cheerfully predicting an April snowfall. And sure enough it arrived! A picture taken late Tuesday afternoon portrays it well…

20140415_ELF_2606

Traces of spring… and winter again!

The following morning, some of us went out to take pictures…

20140416_ELF_2630

20140416_ELF_2622

OK, it wasn’t really that deep… 🙂 Can anyone figure out how I took those photos, though? I’ll post a picture later of how it was done.

20140416_EJF_2357

The spring songbirds seemed to be enjoying the lovely day and the snowy background made the birdfeeder a perfect photoshooting spot.

20140416_EJF_2370

Getting close enough to shoot a good picture was tricky, but cropping afterward “fixed” the problem to a certain extent.

20140416_ELF_2644

20140416_ELF_2645

20140416_ELF_2647

Encouraged by my results from yesterday, I went out again this morning determined not to allow my 55mm lens stop me from getting close. At first, even the friendly chickadees were a little uncertain about approaching the feeder with someone so close by, but eventually they began to ignore me and even the slightly shyer juncos joined them, though they preferred the area on the ground 2 feet from my boots to the feeder 5 feet from my camera lens!

20140417_ELF_2650

20140417_ELF_2670

And a few that were cropped…

20140417_ELF_2658

20140417_ELF_2651

And my personal favourite:

20140417_ELF_2657Meanwhile, Stephen with a 70-300mm took on the challenge of shooting action photos.

20140417_SLF_0916

20140417_SLF_0929

20140417_SLF_0946

20140417_SLF_0981

Yet, despite the late snow, spring is in the air. We are looking forward to seeing how God will order, not only natural events, but also our way as we follow him.

OrderMySteps

More roofing

The weather changed significantly during the week following our snow fun. The temperatures rose, the sun shone, and the maple trees began running. Snow and ice sliding off the backside of the roof tore the chimney supports out and created damage to both the roof and the chimney. Rain was to move in the next day, so Stephen went up to see what he could do.20140407_ELF_2570

20140407_ELF_2573

 It’s a good thing Canadians still eat icecream in winter.  Coaticook makes their buckets just the right size…

20140407_ELF_2576

That should prevent rain from coming down the chimney!

A couple days later, Daddy went up and put the chimney back in place.

20140409_EJF_2309

A Sunday Snowstorm

On March 30th, we welcomed yet another snowstorm. This was the more typical March snow – heavy, wet, clinging to everything. Due to the hazardous driving conditions produced by such snow, many of the churches around cancelled their meetings. So we stayed home where we were joined by my two married brothers and their wives. In the afternoon, as we enjoyed lunch and a time of fellowship and games, we also watched the snow slowly creep its way off the roof. The rising temperatures outdoors gradually accelerated its progress and large chunks of the whole winter’s ice and snow accumulation began periodically falling off the edge of the roof. After a small avalanche fell, however, a problem was discovered…

20140330_ELF_2366

The situation was quickly diagnosed as an emergency and several jumped in to assist in resolving the problem before more snow had time to come down.

20140330_ELF_2361

20140330_EJF_2164

Thankfully, nothing but the screen was really broken and the emergency team soon had the window back in place.  Boards were laid across it to prevent a reoccurance during subsequent avalanches.

Meanwhile, the photographers, deeming it safer to move out of avalanche range, made a few other discoveries…

20140330_EJF_2169

The old sugar shack finally collapsed under the weight of all that snow and ice.

20140330_ELF_2373

Oh, there’s a picnic table under there after all!

Snow is a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun. The work done, activity quickly turned into a snowball fight. The advantages in this senario were rather one-sided…

20140330_EJF_2196

20140330_EJF_2218

The snowcovered roof not only was used as a vantage point in the snowball fight, but also became an interesting “playground” as the guys attempted to remove the rest of the ice/snow.

20140330_ELF_2425

20140330_ELF_2434

JF_20140330_1060

JF_20140330_1071

That was fun, but it created a little more work. It took me 45 minutes of shovelling to clear it all out! That was fun too, though.

20140330_ELF_2450

20140402_ELF_2458

To the work! to the work! we are servants of God,
Let us follow the path that our Master has trod;
With the balm of His counsel our stregth to renew,
Let us do with our might what our hands find to do.