Lucky

031511: We've been busy puttering around in between fast moving storms. Our lives are dictated by weather these days and what projects we can get done on good weather days. Over the last two weeks since I posted last I have taken over 200 photos. Here are a few...

The lake was especially calm on this morning. The morning was hauntingly beautiful.

Three of my favorite photo subjects: Hubby, his cat and the dock.

The coots dot the lake as the day begins to glow in the East. Our sunrises are traveling further and further North as they heads towards the Vernal Equinox (3/20) and then onto the Summer Solstice (6/21.)

This beauty stopped by the other day and perched in tree about 30 feet from our house. I cautiously started out taking photos hoping to catch some close-ups. I wasn't disappointed as this Bald Eagle stayed put for about 30 minutes and it didn't care if I walked around, walked under, spoke outloud, coughed or laughed. I'm not 100% convinced that it is the same bird that I posted about (below.) But, none-the-less, it is juvenile Bald Eagle.

Not a bad way to start any day, eh?

Busy, Redefined

030211: Well, two series of storms over five days total left 23 inches of snow behind. Now, we have been sitting around watching it melt while trying to stay busy otherwise. Below are some photos that I have taken over the past two weeks. Rain is expected over the next day and our white world will disappear before our eyes.

North Dock glowing in the morning sun.

I liked the light and dark of this scene.

David actually called me outside to take a photo of this fog creature rising from the lake. I liked the mirror image on the lake, too.

This one is my favorite of the group.

Icicles at sunset.

Sunrise in the fog.

Our resident Canada Geese, Honky and Honey.

I spied this young raptor yesterday hunting for breakfast. It's a 2-3 year old Bald Eagle as denoted by its' coloring. A Bald Eagle's wing span reaches 80" and it weighs just about 9.5#.

After the After, But Before the Next...

021811: The second snow storm snuck in yesterday and quietly left 11 inches of snow upon us overnight. No snow drifts, just a nice gentle never ending snow! And just about a hour ago, it started again and it is supposed to snow all night long. Again. Again, Again....

I just took this photo before posting this blog. The lake had smoothed out and mirrored the hills across the lake. The patch of ice that had started out on our shoreline this morning had now moved off shore. It's gray, quiet and cold.

Yesterday afternoon, before the snow started again, I spied what I thought was a juvenile Bald Eagle. I was wrong! As he escaped my presence I could see that it was a Red Tailed Hawk.

11 inches of snow. Everywhere.

We'll just see what this scene looks like tomorrow...

Before and After

021711:

Today we are going to take the dogs out to play in the after. We figured if we can't work in it we might as well play in it. More after is expected later today into tomorrow. Awesome.

The Not Funny Comedy Show

021611:

A mere three weeks before we open. Five hours and four inches into a three day winter storm.

Snow wreaks havoc on our clean up and get ready schedule!

I am not amused.

If you are reading this anytime around 2/16/11 check out our LakeCam here.

Good Morning, February

020111: Sometimes blue mornings are the best.

Photo taken 013011. As two fishermen trolled by David and I commented that 1) The guy standing up in the boat really shouldn't be standing up in a fishing boat, and 2) He looked like George Washington crossing the Delaware.
020111. Cloudy, cool day. And hungry birds.

On Snow Days We Call in Lazy

013011: I woke up this morning to snow flurries and the storm has now progressed into heavier snow, but off and on. It is supposed to be like this all day long. Fortunately the weather forecasters nailed this short storm and we were prepared! Everything is tucked away until tomorrow when the warmer weather will begin to return.

I pulled out a few photos that we took on January 1st. David with Colt and Gunner. (Yes, named after David's love of all-things-gun.) Can you see the brave fishermen on the lake? Only on opening day of fishing will we see fishermen in such weather.

David's hand at photo taking. Not, bad, eh?

Gunner in his natural pose...waiting for the ball.

This morning. There was a peak through sunrise but it was snowing, too. Moments later the clouds fully engulfed the sunrise.

Carpe Diem

011911: If you have ever thought about or have the chance to live at lake, do it. I highly recommend it. Years ago, when we took over the Park from my parents, my mom told me to take time to enjoy the view as often as possible. She regretted that during their tenure here that she had been too wrapped up in the work required to really appreciate the view out their back door. That advice has stuck with me all these years since. Maybe that is why I started the photo blog, to preserve the memories. And maybe that is why we installed the LakeCam, to share the daily view with you.

This last week has been a spectacular week of sunrises. And you can thank my mom for my want to photograph these for you. (And for me, too....)

011311, 6:52 am. The early morning clouds become a canvas for the pastels of pink and purple.

011311, 7:01 am. Nearly 10 minutes later the pastels transformed before my eyes to a fire in the sky.

011411, 6:50 am. This morning was a combination of all the previous morning's colors.

011511, 6:50 am. And on this morning, same colors, but bolder, sharper strokes.

011811, 5:53 am. At this early morning hour I caught the beginning of the sunrise. I thought the simplicity of the view was so pretty. There are about five visible ripples (rings) on the lake. Those are from fish jumping to catch their breakfast.

011811, 6:03 am. Same morning! You can see the thin layer of clouds to the far lower left of the photo. However, as the sunrise progressed it touched all the awaiting clouds in the sky. This may not look so spectacular in photo, but in person it was breathtaking. I actually called David out from his man cave to see this as the entire sky, as far as we could we could see in all directions, was aglow with orange puffy clouds. We were engulfed in the beauty of this morning's sunrise.

Early Preparation

011111: We are just beginning to think about our upcoming season and all the start up preparation necessary to complete in the next few months. I seriously need to write down my "Need To Do" list before my head explodes with all these thoughts!

If you like useless fact about Topaz Lake's water level read section #1 below first. If not, skip to section #2:

1. I just checked the lake level and it is 10 vertical feet higher than it was one year ago on the same date. To clarify, vertical feet is synonymous with elevation feet, not shoreline feet, which is incomparable due to changes in the lake bed year to year. However, for a visual comparison sake, last year after Memorial Weekend I wrote about the rising lake level due to the melt off (you can read about that here) and right now - on 1/11/11 - the lake is as high as it was on 6/4/10. The runoff that supplies the lake occurs mostly late May, early June. Last year, the runoff was record breaking, (which I wrote about here) And a few other interesting facts, (that is, if you find this interesting to begin with!) the current 10 ft difference is equal to about 28% of the total lake storage. And the lake will be considered full or at its' maximum in another 11 ft which is equal to 39% of the lake storage. Yes, the last few feet is a huge part of the total water storage.

2. The lake is usually high for this time of the year. There is about 90 feet of beach left, which believe me is a lot when you have two docks that the water is creeping up under already. Though we fully expect the lake to fill this year, if that happens and how long it would stay full depends on when and how much the farmers use in the spring.

So, in closing, I just checked my calendar and we open 8 weeks from today! Yikes! If you have read any of my previous posts about time flying past us, by my calculations 8 weeks already occurred 3 days ago. I've barely begun the year and I'm late already!

Glow Lake

010911: Yes, I take a lot of morning time photos. That is the time of day that I seem to have a moment for me to take photos at my will. And I believe the mornings at Topaz are truly the most beautiful time of the day. So my time constraints seem to work well this fact!

This morning I was getting ready for the day and we, again, had early morning fog. It was a "blah" view looking East, but as the sun rose, the fog lifted on the South end of the lake and the air began to glow only in that area. I was in our bedroom and saw the view at a sharp angle but could see the glow occurring with the tree in the foreground. I dashed for my camera (not ran nor sprinted, but dashed..) then carefully stepped out on our frozen deck for the shot. I didn't stay out long because the windchill was so cold! But I snapped a few photos and thought this was the best of them.

Mother Nature's Paint

010811: I'm in the middle of a painting project right. Finally getting around to painting our extra bedroom after 10 years of living with the flower wallpaper we inherited from my parents' era in this house. No offense to my mom, but I'm not much of flower-wallpaper-kind-of-girl. I prefer solid colors, to which painting is a perfect solution for me. But I do like paint textures and have experimented with them in different rooms in our house. Not all textures have been successful, but fortunately I like to paint so I can always start over again.... Boy, if any of you are reading in between the lines here this sound a lot like digital photography!

My recent photos of the pogonip fog have had me thinking of nature's colors and textures. The fog, if you ever have a chance to see it in person, it is just breathtaking. It's like thousands upon millions of miniature icicles that cling to anything and everything. And when the sun warms the surrounding air to the right temperature the icicles release and you would swear that millions of diamonds are falling upon you as they sparkle in the air....

A closer view of the pogonip on some twigs on one of our younger Honey Locusts.

It looks snow covered, but it's sagebrush encased in pogonip fog. After the fog melts, it's brown winter coat will return.

Our newly trimmed trees back dropped by the diminishing pogonip fog.

This now has become one of my favorite photos. Fog frozen tree, icy blue winter sky, receding fog...

These are the neighboring trees to the tree in the preceding photo. Winter stopped by a few weeks ago and decided to stay awhile. Mother Nature has painted our world shades of blue and white and I like it.

Same Ol', Same Ol'.....Beautiful

010611: I took about a 30 photos yesterday of the Pogonip fog that has occurred over the last few days. I need to spend some time choosing which photos to post here, so in the meanwhile here are a few photos from the days preceding...

I like this photo for several reasons: 1) It's sunny out. Cold, but sunny! 2) Fishermenwoples on the lake on opening day 3) The snow on our beach shows evidence of how our neighbors & us visit each other.... we walk!

This was a truly beautiful morning. I took a lot of photos this particular morning, but decided on this as I am always a fan of sun rays and golden-like snow. (Note: Golden snow, not yellow snow!)

Our sleeping Park casting their frozen shadows. Can you see the cat prints in the snow in the middle/bottom of the photo? We have one feral cat on the property that we are taking care of now.

A winter sunset. So quiet, so glossy.

Happy Thursday, y'all! Stay warm!

Children Playing

010211: Well, as I mentioned before we awoke yesterday morning to a snowstorm. The first of the year... and we reset the weather forecasters prediction counter to zero. So for 2011, they are 0 for 1. But to be fair, snow was predicted in the upper elevations. It just dropped about 2000' lower than predicted. It was beautiful and quiet and apparently fun, too. And since my cousin, Mike, says he reads my blog....this one is for you!

My niece, Katie, and her friend, Karlie were trying to find a place to sled down the beach...

Their homemade cardboard sleds weren't successful so they found another use for them.

We are used to hearing children play and laugh outside in the summertime. It was nice to hear it in the winter, too.

Happy New Year!

010111: I really shouldn't be up and forming thoughts in my head right now since I only went to bed hours ago. We went out last night to celebrate the coming of the New Year with friends and family. We had a treacherous drive in the freezing weather.....600 feet down the road to their house! Great times at our old friends'/new neighbors' house! We got home near 1 am and hubby wanted to stay up and see the clock turn 1:11 on 1/1/11. I think my goofiness is rubbing off on him.

I awoke to a snow storm outside and quickly stepped out for a photo op of any fishermenwople on the lake. I came back in started developing a plan for my 2011 while thinking about the year 2010. These thoughts made me recall a story I had read about how the month of January got it's name. Let me share:

January is directly linked to Roman mythology, named after Janus, the god of the gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings and time; coming from the Latin word for door (ianua) – essentially meaning that January is the door to the year. His most prominent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January, which begins the new year. Most often he is depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions; one head looks back at the last year while the other looks forward to the new, simultaneously into the future and the past.

How interesting that our modern day celebration of ringing in the New Year is linked to roman mythology?

Meanwhile, as I write, the snowstorm I awoke to has now turned into a S.N.O.W.S.T.O.R.M!!! And I know there are die hard people out there fishing, too. If it lightens up a little we might run the dogs out in the Park as they love the snow. Enjoy your day and Happy New Year!

Reflection

123110: Do you remember where you were and what you were doing 10 years ago today? We were just beginning to pack for our new lives in Topaz Lake RV Park. The year 2001 was our first year here. Now on the eve of 2011 we are entering our 11th season. As always, we are hoping for a good year at the Park.

I took this photo yesterday afternoon after the storm blew through.

One lone pelican showed up the other day. He is a bit early for opening day on fishing.

Remnants of the snow/rain storm. The South dock is pulled up near the rock wall yet the water is creeping up under it. The water level right now is 9 feet vertically higher than it was on the same date one year ago. I *think* the lake will fill up this year!

I'm slipping a photo of our cat Rascal for you. He's a keeper because he's black and white.

We drove to town today and saw this juvenile Bald Eagle resting on a roadside telephone pole. We are always glad to see more Bald Eagles in the area.

Coming back from town we stopped to look at the lake. You can see our Park is along the shoreline near the bare cottonwoods. It was a beautiful, cold (24 degrees!) day out. Tomorrow the lake will be dotted with fishing boats on opening day.

This photo of the snowed covered mountains in the lake reflection is the last of 2010.

Enjoy and Happy New Year! May all your dreams come true and it be a prosperous year for us all.