Winter Reflection

Black Earth Watershed

Salmo Pond

Winter has come in earnest to Wisconsin. The bit of snow we had earlier this week was a tiny taste of things to come taken. I went out to take photographs tonight and decided to wait until better light. The snow was heavy, nearly a white-out, and there’s not much to photograph when it’s dark and snowing that hard.

School has already been canceled for Wednesday and many companies are telling non-essential employees to stay home. I checked the weather map, hoping maybe to see a lull in the snow, but no such luck. There is snow stacked up all to the west – half of Wisconsin, all of Iowa and Minnesota, and reaching as far as South Dakota and Nebraska. And all headed this way.

Bet tomorrow I’ll have plenty of snow for a wintry photo! But I think it will have to be from a backyard perspective.

Sometimes You Take the Photo…

Amazing What you See when You Get Off the Highway

...and Ask No Questions

For the curious, found at Set in Stone, a lovely coffee shop/Wisconsin gifts and products shop/book store/ wine shop and fibre studio located in Mineral Point Wisconsin. A lovely place to browse and pick up a few gifts while sipping a scrumptious chai tea.

Zen Bench

On a Quiet Village Street

On a Quiet Village Street

We drove to Mineral Point today, a town a good hour away from Madison, and pleasingly filled with galleries and such stores. The town is old, very old by Wisconsin’s standards, and many of the homes and buildings are built with huge quarried stone, a lovely golden yellow in color. Though I chose to go with the black and white photograph of the stone bench. I loved all the lines and all the tones in the photo. It’s a solid piece of stone work, though on a day like this which feels close to true winter, with temperatures hovering near the freezing mark, there remained a bit of ice on the bench. Not even a steady show of the sun melted all the icy slush. Has a peaceful feel though. Nice.

How Fast is a Baby Tiger?

Very!

Very!

So fast, only her stripes are left!

Amur Tiger Cub

5 months old and full of energy

5 months old and full of energy

Day 3 of the Best of ’09 Challenge. Today’s challenge is to write about the best article I read in 2009. I read a lot. Hard to pick one article, but I did enjoy an article on the Laughing Yoga.

And today I found myself laughing at the antics of a pair of tiger cubs. Yes, laughing is great medicine for whatever ails you.

Now about those tiger cubs. This is one of two females born on July 8, 2009. The cubs, recently named Tula and Nuri, were born at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin. They are now old enough to be making regular appearances in their indoor exhibit every day.

The name Tula is from the South African language, isiZulu, and means “quiet.”  Nuri means “my flame” and is Hebrew.

After watching the two cubs play and interact for nearly an hour this morning, I am guessing that the cub in the photograph is Nuri – if she is living up to the meaning of her name. She spent most of the time chasing her sister, and when the other cub finally dropped in her tracks to take a nap, Nuri took a few pounces on her sleeping sister. Tula turned her back on the more rambunctious cub, and Nuri posed – briefly – before taking another pounce towards her watchful mother.