Some days it has been snowing, long after I think the winter has been here for long enough. Fortunately, now the winter has definitely lost, and spring is here. The catkins are appearing, and this makes me happy every year when I first spot them. It is so nice to see a certain sign that the winter has ended.

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In addition, I think that these make good motives, and so it makes me even happier when they appear. I do appreciate opportunities to play with my camera!

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I generally like playing with water, and this is no exception. After having taken some shots of nice and dry catkins, I have to douse them with water, to have my droplet fun!

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It wasn’t very easy to shoot all the angles I wanted. Some required me to step partly into the bush I was shooting. While standing there, it was very hard indeed not to bump into the branches, makeing my motives move around! The wind didn’t help either. The conditions will never be perfect, I suppose.

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This also proved, yet again, that it is a good idea to seize opportunities. Yesterday I was wondering whether it was any point in going out straight away, because of the wind. Perhaps it would be better to do it another day? Well, today the sun cannot be seen, as it hides behind thick, grey rain clouds. I am glad I decided to give it a try yesterday!

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These days there are a lot of little snow buntings hanging around the house. Particularly after they discovered that they could get food here. Now they are all happily stuffing their beaks with seeds, and generally looking very cute.

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Naturally, I wanted to see if I could get some decent shots of them, so on a couple of occasions I wandered out with my camera. I’m really surprised at how fast they came, even though I was pretty close by. I thought they would be much more shy. Of course I am happy about that, but I would naturally be even happier if they would have let me come a little closer. I’m not going to complain though, I’m glad they were willing to snack while I was there at all.

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Once again I confirmed that it does not take very long to take a lot of shots. On one of the occasions I was outside with the birdies, I took nearly 3200 shots, and I must say it was too many for it to be any fun sorting through them. I was very glad when I had made my selection, and didn’t have to think about that anymore!

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Having such a lot of bird in one place also attracted one of the hunters of the neighbourhood. This fellow came sneaking along, and did his best at capturing a bird for himself. Fortunately for the little winged creatures, he did not succeed. He did however succeed in scaring them away, so that I lost all my little motives.

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As all the little birds flew away from the kitty, I also got a special greeting from one of them. During the escape, one of them pooped on my shoulder. Thank you very much, birdie! You are obviously very grateful for all the seeds I tossed out for your enjoyment!

It was starting to feel like spring, until mother nature suddenly decided that it was too early, and proceeded to provide a whole lot of snow again. I figured that it was time to do some shovelling. Snow looks very nice and light when it’s falling, but it’s sure heavy when there’s a lot of it that needs to be moved from one place to another. My arms are aching! Well, after having covered the landscape in white stuff again, the weather changed once more. Today it’s been wonderfully sunny, the snow started melting again, and some icicles that hung in a convenient location started dripping.

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Seeing this, I had to grab my camera and go outside to get some shots of it. I definitely have a weak spot for little drops of water! Fortunately for me, I also had a little ladder available, so that I could get a nice angle.

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I admit that while standing on that ladder, I did fear the possibility of slipping, falling, and damaging my beloved camera. However, I did manage to avoid that, so the camera is still in perfect condition, and I have no broken bones or bruises.

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Coming back inside, I discovered that I had taken 1611 shots during that quite short session. Wow! I thought it was a few hundred, so it was quite a shock to see the actual number. I certainly don’t mind taking many shots, the trouble is that I have to sort through all of them afterwards.

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It took some time, but I did finish that task too eventually, and I narrowed down that number considerably. After giving it some more thought, I even managed to select my top 5 favourites.

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I definitely like it when nice motives turn up right outside my window!

I really do make interesting titles, don’t I?

So, I was just lazing around, when it was brought to my attention that there were lovely northern lights flooding the sky. Why, oh why didn’t I pay attention to the sky? Well, I did the only thing I could do. I ran about, gathering my equipment, and threw myself out the door as quickly as I could. I dearly wanted to make sure that I at least got some shots of it.

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I did get that. I really wish I had known that the sky would put on such a show. Had I known, I would have made sure to not be in the middle of the neighbourhood. It would have been very neat to get some more interesting shots than these, but with houses and lights at every side, there were only one direction I could point the camera – straight up! Of course, I am very glad that I could do this much at all, but I really hope I will be better prepared the next time!

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Some weeks ago, I was full of hope, thinking I would take lots of pictures, and perhaps even make a timelapse or two, of the beautiful northern lights. The only problem was that it would not appear. Today, I finally had my fist chance. Nice, clear sky, and some streaks of green!

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There weren’t much of it, but I grabbed my camera and rushed outside, hoping that it would become brighter. Well, it didn’t. Quite the contrary, it vanished quickly. I went back inside, determined to keep an eye on the sky, hoping that it would appear again. Patience paid off.

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I went out again, and this time the light was much brighter than the last time. I would have loved to see it even brighter, and lasting for a longer time, but I can’t complain. At least this time I got some shots I could actually use.

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I hope that there will be more of this beautiful light very soon, so that I can take some more pictures of it. I absolutely love the northern lights! Hopefully I will also get an opportunity to take some pictures while I’m not in the middle of a neighbourhood, surrounded by bright lights!

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