February 5, 2013 Days are getting longer.....

Last night I was out chasing sunsets on Lake Superior again.  When I was up on the ridge for my late afternoon walk with Toby, I could see a light haze over the west horizon and a few interesting clouds.   It wasn't a lot; but, no heavy grey clouds which means no color up.  Well....as you can see, by the time I got to a spot that works, there is that narrow heavy grey cloud.....just enough to keep from getting a beautiful evening sky.  There was a bit of color banding on the horizon, but not much.
That's the way the ball bounces....unfortunately.   You just can't always predict the sunrises or the sunsets.  You can just look at what seems to be there that may do it and go for it.  If you stay home, you may see a beautiful sky, but you won't have any nice scenery to put in the foreground.  It was a lovely evening on the beach with Toby, at any rate.  He was pretty relaxed as we had done our usual early morning walk....at -23 degrees below 0.  We went to Horseshoe Bay and had a little expedition at mail time.

Here is Horseshoe Bay at noon, yesterday.  I am in the corner of the bay where the creek comes in.  You can see it flooded up pretty nicely with that recent rain.  The ice has set in the bay out to the end of each point.  The ice was flocked with frost crystals and looked very pretty.  By later in the day, I saw the ice had gone out of all the big bays and was only left in the smaller bays.  But, if you are up on top of a hill, you can see the big ice packs as far as you can see.    So....since February is starting out cold, we may still get ice.  Last night, it snowed 2-3" so everything is white and fluffy again.

It was also a very pretty day for taking shadow photos.  I always find these fun.  But, it is actually more fun even later in the afternoon when the shadows get twice as long.  They make some fun pictures when they stretch out like that.
In the late afternoon, Toby and I headed out again for our afternoon adventure.  That is when I started paying attention to what the sky was doing.  It did look very promising.  So, we got home, loaded the gear, and off we went.  By now, it was up to 10 degrees.  That beats -23 degrees all to heck.  But, it is still pretty cold on the fingers.  I haven't found gloves that I can work the camera with yet....so, thus.....freezing fingers syndrome by the time you get done.  They barely had thawed out by the time I got home.  Toby....on the other hand, went promptly to sleep on the pickup seat and really crashed with his nose tucked under his paw when we got home.  All that play and no naps makes for a tired boy. 
I will say, tho, that he is "so far, so good" after quitting the antibiotics.  He is perkier and more playful than he has been in a very long time.  He will be 10 years old mid-May.  He was on the antibiotics for two full years.  He probably will never not register positive on a Lyme's test again.  But, as long as it doesn't flare up.....I guess that is the best we can ask for.  He's a happy dog.  :)

I will leave you with a peaceful, heading back to the truck, photo of a lovely late afternoon on the shore of Lake Superior.