My Daily Log: January 2014

January 24

This was day 2 of another northern cold front that brought our temps down to in the teens. Tomorrow and Sunday it should be up in 60's and then 70's Sunday with another cold front hitting Monday. Oh, boy Texas winter. Well here is my frozen fountain once again this year. The next several shots were with my Samsung Galaxy Wifi Camera.

This shot is of the 7th Street Bridge in Fort Worth, we were in the Limo and I took this while we were crossing.

We got to our destination a bit late, but enough time for some out door photo's. Saint-Emilion is rated #1 in Forth Worth, my commentary a bit later.

Valerie, at coffee and desert time. My rating is about a C+ B-, service A#1, atmosphere B (quaint but a bit crowded together), Food C (Duck as B+, Lamb Chops C-), quantity A (much more than I expected for French Cuisine). It was worth going, but likely will not return.

January 25th

Beautiful day to work in the yard so I decided to tackle my train yard. Actually did get one track up and running. It was cold in the morning so I took some MORE ice shots.

Now this was a very unique ice formation. The water looks to be going left to right, but it is flowing right to left into the "ice hose". Somehow the ice froze and then as the stream of water hit the ice it dug a hole creating a hose like ice structure. I now wish I good more angles to truly show how awesome this was.

The next couple of fountain shots are with my Nikon D5300 using the 18-140MM lens. These were taken a bit after noon.

The next fountain shots were with my Nikon D3100 using the 55-300 Lens. Again just after noon sometime. No touch ups done.

Now for the truly cool part of the day for me. Many years back I nursed a over fed Cedar Waxwing that was migrating south for the winter. Over the winter he became quite friendly and almost became of pet. But because of his difficult eating habits, (either fresh fruit or live insects) I knew it was best to set him free. Than the flock came back through to head back north so after several attempts he finally left the cage to go with his friends. Ever since they always stop by my house (I am sure not because of what I did) on their migratory paths. Now what is interesting here is that they normally come by October, November (which they did), but normally they head through here in March April to go back north. So I am not sure if this flock is heading south or are a sign of an early spring and heading back north. They head northwest to the west coast all the way up to Seattle. The west coast has had unusual warm weather. So we will see what we get.

The first 2 shots are with my Samsung Galaxy WIFI camera.

The next shots are with my Nikon D3100 using the 55-300 lens.

Today is starting off relaxing, the first such day this year. While I was drinking my coffee in the man cave I noticed out my window the old dandelion. So crabbed the camera and went out.

Shot with my Nikon D5300

The next shot is a modified shot of the one above with full saturation and a few other lighting touches.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, and the best day of 2014 for me so far. My health is getting better, and I have no major dreads going on. So I was able to man up and start working on the yard.

Here are some before shots. Using my Samsung Galaxy WIFI camera.