Snow Creation 2013

Last winter, swc submitted a photo of a puffer fish made of snow. He found it near his neighborhood that someone made in their front yard of their house. This year he returned and sure enough, they had created a snow walrus. I wonder how many years they have been doing this.

Spirit Of Halloween

A three stitch photo contribution today from swc of a house decorated to the max for Halloween. I do laugh when I see this much stuff in a yard for the spooky Holiday. Where do they store all of this the other eleven months?

Smile

I'm at a loss for words on why you do this to your vehicle....

The Snow Thing

What a great find by swc an unusual creation from the little snow that we've had this season. It looks similar to a puffer fish to me or perhaps a dogs chew toy. Thank you for the contribution.

Hello There

I'd missed this contribution photo from swc from late summer. He had opened the front door of his house and spotted the bird sitting on the birdhouse.

Tall Lilly's

This lily stands at 5 feet, 6 inches tall, which is a few inches shorter than I am. I've never seen one at this height before, so the size is surprising.

Clumpy Clouds

Storm passed through here last night, nothing much really came from it. Spotty thunderstorms at best, but there for sure was potential for more than what we received. This clumpy clouds contribution photo from swc was taken from his back yard as the storm was rolling through the Twin Cities.

Clouds generally have flat bottoms because the layer or boundary at which water condenses in the atmosphere is usually smooth and uniform. However, if this boundary is turbulent and mixed the cloud layer reflects this in its shape. Here well-rounded Mammatus clouds have formed on the outskirts of a thundercloud. Should these types of clouds be illuminated when the sun is low in sky, as they are here, the bias relief and colors of the clouds can be striking. Be weary of the of the weather if these clouds are seen in the sky.

Lone Cardinal

This cardinal sat there for at least 20 minutes in the neighbors tree. Contribution photo from swc.

Looking Up

Spotting these pine cones growing atop of a tree in the yard of swc. It seamed unusually to see that many, way up near the top, while very few were seen in the middle and lower half of the tree.

Open Water

This contribution photo shows a robin who stayed behind for the winter months in Minnesota. Unfortunately, this robin was here for the blizzard weather we received last weekend. The photo shows a heated bird bath outside the home of SWC, which the robin, I believe was enjoying, despite the frigged weather.

Forgotten Flowers

What's interesting about this photo is the time of the year this photo was taken, right at the end of February, after some of the winter's snow has melted away. A survivor from the 2009 growing season has stood tall and is waiting for spring to arrive. For how much snow gets dumped on the plant during the snowy months, for it to be in this good of condition was a surprise.

The Life Of The Snow Village

This snow village was spotted by cmc and photographed by swc over the past week. I'm surprised by all of the props the snowmen have or are wearing to some degree. Though, we've made it into March and the sun's rays are starting to warm. The past two days and the next few should melt away all of the hard work that went into this snow village

Ice On A Stick

A nice ice formation collecting on a branch as the snow melted down.

The Blue Tree

There is something I like about blue LED Christmas lighting, perhaps the uniqueness, perhaps the calming colors, perhaps it just not as busy as the multicolored lights or it's just different than the over used white bulbs. I do like this capture that was sent to me from swc, enjoy!

Theme Day: Waiting

Greetings fellow CityDailyPhoto bloggers and returning guests as you make your way through December's 'Waiting' theme day photos. A unique theme day and quite unusual from our standard take a photo of your favorite 'fill in the blank'. The theme today requires the photo to resemble an action, to tell a story, if you will.

I'm using a contribution photo today from swc as my theme day photo selection. Seeing just the apples hanging there in the bare tree, just out of reach. Gravity will get the best of these apples, but how long will they stay up there?

To see additional theme day photos around the world, stop by the portal page for a convenient thumbnail view of all participants. As the time zone changes each hour, more photos will be added.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

My first thought was, this is a 'red-headed woodpecker'. After a google search, I found out it was a 'red-bellied woodpecker'. [wiki page] There actually is red on the belly, it's just very hard to notice when they are standing. This contribution photo from swc was captured a couple weeks ago. It landed on the feeder, he ran to get the camera hoping it would still be there for photographing. Luckily the bird cooperated long enough.

To Brighten Your Day

Our weather around the Twin Cities has been a bit of a downer lately. Below average temps, lots of rain, a few inches of snow and very little sunshine. We just seam to be in a cloudy funk for the entire month of October. I'm posting some yellow color today. It's a contribution from swc of a giant sunflower.

Garden Flowers

Flowers from the garden of swc, thank you for the contribution.

Hawk Moth

This contribution photo from swc of a Hawk Moth taken in his flower garden in New Brighton. The wings of this moth are clear, it sips nectar from flowers and the wings beet extremely fast. Not surprisingly, it's also been called a hummingbird moth. Now to me, it looks similar to a crawdad, but with wings. Getting a clear photo was a bit difficult with the moth buzzing around as fast as it was.

Another recent photo of the Hawk Moth can be found on Abe's Brookview Daily Photo site. Abe's photo was viewed by swc and to his surprise, he found one a couple days later, otherwise, we would be guessing what kind of moth this was.

Mama And The Chicks

Contribution photo from swc, taken about a week ago in his backyard. Capturing the mother duck leading her ducklings on a journey. In the foreground, that yellow blob, a golden finch was just leaving the feeder as the shutter clicked.