Leap Day Beach Walk

So, it's Sadie Hawkins Day, or Leap Day, if you prefer. A day we only get once every four years... something to do with adjusting our calendar to make the seasons happen when we think they ought to.

How very human of us.

But faced with an "extra" day, I wanted to do something that was a little more fun, to balance out the fact that, in all other ways, it was an ordinary day. And since it had been delightfully sunny, I thought it'd be a good night for a sunset from around the Rock Harbor area.

It was only 21 degrees, though, so I didn't linger as much as I might've liked on another beach walk. Ah, but the sights...well, I'll let them speak for themselves:

Winter Scenes

First off, I wanted to show off the potted canna lily that's growing so nicely in my bedroom. At this rate, it'll be ready to bloom as soon as its warm enough this summer!

On the subject of killing two birds with a single stone (no offense, starlings!), I've also heard from a few of you requests for what the recent painting project entails...so I managed to work in the recently painted walls as the background here.

The pale blue walls already existed...on Sunday, I added the darker speckling, which has sort of changed the character of the blue walls a little. Now just wait until I've got a little time to do some stenciling.

Today I thought I would share a few random winter scenes with you, taken along today's more circuitous route to work. First, is this frozen pond and house in North Chatham, overlooking Pleasant Bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.


Next, I stopped along the road to capture a flock of assorted waterbirds who were splashing and feeding in the open water where Tar Kiln Creek feeds into Pleasant Bay. Of course, they flew off as soon as my camera was ready, but the ice formations along the shoreline were still pretty cool.

Today's final image is this frozen fishing boat, at Rock Harbor in Orleans.

Valentine's Storm

It was a dreary Valentine's Day around here, at least as far as the weather was concerned. While much of the northeast saw great amounts of snow falling, we got about a quarter of an inch, before temps rose up into the 40s and gave us a day of torrential rain and high wind.

Recently popular for skating, today the pond is only collecting more water.