Frost and Ice

A few frosty photos from on the deck.  You can see the gold fish just beneath the black ice. 
Today I purchased my new Canon EOS Rebel T1i or EOS 500D.  I had my heart set on a 7D.  While looking at it and trying it out I found that it was rather heavy.  My old lenses from the Canon Elan 7e all work with it, but the shutter release cable does not.  The salesman was excellent. He watched me handling this thing and very expertly suggested that I might like to try the T1i.  The lenses and the shutter release  are usable with this one.  It seems to have much better balance for me.  I liked how the Elan felt in my hands and this smaller Rebel T1i feels the same.  AND it is half the price.  I am not sure what the big difference between the 7D and this one might be, but I am sure I will be very happy with this one! 
Our January seems to have been very busy. 
In the garden the snow drops are in bloom and the species crocus are up.  I don't see the crocus leaves in the front crocus field but they should be showing soon, too.  The Blue heron has been seen around the pond. All the apples are gone from beneath the tree.  I had raked them and the leaves off the grass onto the path.  The leaves are still there, but the apples are gone.  There has been a very busy squirrel around the back garden. This must be a very full squirrel if it ate all those apples, though.  The critter is also eating the few apples that were out on the deck in a plastic bag.
Megashot seems to be rocking right along.  Our servers were maxed out so we now have more servers to carry the load.  Version 2 should be soon in development and on line.    Its been an exciting day today!

Rainbows

This rainbow was hanging around for at least an hour.  It was double at one point, but too faint to show up on my photo.  We were having light rain and sun, of course, on a beautiful balmy day.  The red tree really is that red.  It is my Japanese cedar that is greeny bronze in summer and red in the winter.  Its a fine tree.  There is a patch of dry needles in one area near the bottom.  I am considering cutting the bottom branches off.  The tree is in the woodland garden with dames rocket, bluebells, honesty and few other volunteer plants around it.  My best trilliam is near it at the front and there are fawn lilies, columbines and some big leafed plant that gets out of hand, as does the lemon balm.  There are sumack trees that are growing into a small grove.  Its quite wild and chaotic and I rather like it.  I now have a tub sitting on the stump where Davey Tree took down the big Eucalyptus with the Saskatoon trees behind it.  Old weird Sheila occasionally attacks and hacks my trees if they dare get over on her side of the fence line.  She has removed her board fence that was penning her in like an old cow,  and put up some silly plastic stuff.  She needs her boundaries defined, I guess. 

My blue heron was to visit a couple of days ago. I was shooting at it through the window and do not have a great shot.  When I went out on the deck to try get it, it walked very quickly away behind the garage.  There are too many trees for it to fly up out of the back garden.  It was going to have a look for lunch in the pond.  I guess I interrupted its dinner.

Lately I have been doing some good cooking.  Last night I used up the 6 left over crepes by stuffing them with gingered shrimp and a Oka cheese, with a wine in white sauce to put over top of them.  We had this with sole, wild rice, and califlower in a mild mustard dressing.  Salad of course. Cheese and nuts to finish off the dinner Chardonay wine.

This too, is winter time. 

Winter

This is my black and white version of a tree seen somewhere on the Sunshine Coast on an overcast day.
Yesterday I watered and fed the house plants.  I have 4 orchids in bloom and many african violets.  The orange trees are surviving and some growing new little leaves.  When our climate switches temperature zones I am going to be ready!
Sunday, we went to a matinee showing of the King's speech.  What a refreshingly fine movie, after all the crap that makes it big at the box office!  Then out to dinner at the 15 50.  Was a good day.  Last nite's roast beef turned out superb and the crepes for lunch today were also very good.  But for all the good eating, I am managing to drop a bit of the weight I regained over the great eating season.  There is no more cake, shortbread or pudding in the house!  Have to make do with fruit now!  This should make it easier to drop those pounds off.
We have had a skiff of snow and were to get about 4 inches but that does not seem to be happening.  The temperatures are to warm up in two days.  So, we are slowly getting through the winter.  The garden needs cleaning up.  There are leaves everywhere from the winds we have had.  Last time I looked some of the early bulbs had their little noses up. I guess this cold snap will make them wait a while.

the birds

A hood ornament from one of the cars on the New Year's day run.  It was a nice drive, but I did not get to see much of it.  Have to navigate, and read the instructions.  I enjoyed this one more than I have for a long time.  There was a good turn out.

This is a robin that has been in our backyard for a few weeks now.  It is bigger than most robins and chasing them all away.  It has splotches of white all over it, as though it has been accidentally into white paint.  There are many other birds in the back garden as Andy is feeding them. Juncos, sparrows, titmouses, alaska robins, towhees, little downey woodpeckers, finches.
While out on my walk today to the lottery ticket store, it began to snow lightly.  Now we have a skiff of snow on the ground.  We have been having light freezing over nite and up to 6 or 8 during the day, with some rain and some sun.  Its been a good start to this year.
I have been doing a lot of cooking lately, it seems.  The roast beef turned out very good tonite.  Tomorrow for lunch he suggested crepes with apple sauce and blueberry chutney.  Well.. aren't we grand?  Its going to be yummy.