Pictures by Dan Miles, eh!!

I'm starting off the entry with some really great shots by Dan, a friend of my son's Randy. They were taken of a control burn by Whiskeytown Lake and most or all were taken while driving his truck, eh!! Good focusing, Dan!! ;-)) You can check out the rest here, plus a couple pictures of him playing around with some changes on one of his cars. Be sure to check out all, eh!! Just keep in mind that all of Dan's shots are the one's with the shortest file names. I took the liberties of editing his pictures too and those are the longer file names. Be sure to check out the couple labeled with 'Dragon', eh!! A natural rock/dirt form, but to me it looks like a 'lake monster' in coming out of the lake?? ;-))


To save myself much time, I'm adding on to Dan's page instead of making another just for me. So here's a few of my own shots here, ok!! ~ Later, 'Viper'

First Day of Spring ... NOT!!

Yesterday, Sunday the 19th, I was outside taking a walk down to our garages and was noting to a friend of my son's, Dan, that our snow around us is almost all melted away now. So when Dan left I was telling Kathy that this morning I'd go take some pictures showing the little bit of snow left on the first day of Spring. But when I got up and looked out the door, we had about an inch of fresh snow and it was still falling, eh!! So yes, I got my pictures, but not the ones that I wanted. So where ever you live and whether your snow is deeper or you have none at all, why not check out my pictures from today ... The First Day of Spring, 2006!! ~ Later, 'Viper'

Three In One, eh!!

Friday the 17th our driveway still had about 4'' of snow from our last snowfall, so I went out at 11:00 am and cleared it, as I needed to get to town to take care of some business. Like filing papers with our Marshals Office to evict our asshole tenants, eh!! As I was leaving the house about 2:30 pm it was raining a bit, but with really big drops. As I was driving down off our mountain, making all the twists and turns, I could see some snow thru the rain clouds so stopped a couple of times to grab a couple shots. Because with all the dark clouds hanging over the mountains, I wasn't sure if I'd get another chance, eh!! But as you'll see in these pictures I did get a chance to get a lot of good shots on my way home!! By the time I got back home a bit after 5 pm it was getting really stormy looking and I was beginning to wonder if we'd get more snow overnight.

But we got up Saturday morning the 18th and our driveway was still clear!! So we got ready and went into town for our normal breakfast at Marino's and do our weekly shopping, eh!! All this snowing has really messed up our schedule. Since it was so clear and sunny, I grabbed more pictures and even remembered to bring my tripod too. So the really close-up shots came out nice and clear, eh!!

Now if you're still reading and looking at my pictures, here you will see lots of variations of one of my shots where I tried out a lot of the stuff in my graphics software. I was just playing around to see what I can do, besides just adding a lightening bolt to a shot, eh!! ;-)) Hope you enjoy looking at any or all of these shots. ~ Later, 'Viper'

Our Latest Snow Pictures & Misc Too!!

Well folks, after a day+ of no snow or rain, it started in again Monday the 13th. We couldn't get into town for shopping on Saturday the 11th or Sunday the 12th because of the last snowfall and it was looking like more coming Monday afternoon. So we ate a quick lunch and headed into town about 1:00 pm. Before we got back home about 4:15 pm, it was already spitting snow in town and even more so back at home. As I was unloading the car the snow got heavier and faster. I took a lot of pictures mostly for me and I don't expect you to look at each one, so you can pick/choose by looking at the file names, eh!! ;-)) But it's kind of hard to hold back some of my 'edited' pictures, as you may like looking at them too, right. So when you see one that looks 'off color' or 'fuzzy', that's probably one of my edits, eh!! As you view the snow pictures you'll see that we got a total of 8 inches by Tuesday morning, and I was really expecting a lot more by the way it had been coming down fast and furious!! A lot of the last 50% or so will show you what a beautiful sunny morning we had, blue skies and fast moving white clouds.

When you see the Raven shots, these guys are around here all the time, talking, cussing or what ever you want to call it. I look all around our tall pines trying to locate the sounds and the birds and usually can't see them till today. All the time I was 'talking' back at him he never moved a feather. But by using full zoom on my camera and pointing around the area that the noises seemed to be coming from, I finally found him, eh!! I'm not going to let some old bird get the best of me!!

Then this afternoon (Tuesday 14th) I needed to go out to the roadway about 4:45 pm to meet a lady from our local pharmacy, who was delivering some needed meds for Kathy and because we couldn't get our car out until I shoveled out the snow. So of course I took my camera and tripod and took more pictures while I was waiting. ;-)) As you'll see I have a lot of variety of shots and played around with a few too. Hope you check them out, eh!! One you must see is the type of people my tenants are and their friends too. Absolutly NO respect for anyone else. Shown by them parking their car in the roadway and evan a bit sideways, so the driver wouldn't have to step out into the snow!! Hope you enjoy, 'Viper'

Well HAIL ;-)) and Moon Shots!!

UPDATE!! This afternoon about 5:15 pm I looked out our front door to see if it was still snowing, hailing or what, eh!! What immediately caught my eye was a very bright almost full moon, shining thru our big 'Christmas Tree!!' So I quickly went back in to get my camera and tripod, set it up and starting manuvering to get my shots, right. Well, the best spot was right at my door, but with my right shoulder directly under the dripping water from melting snow coming off the roof!! So what's a little water when I got such great shots, eh!!

I took a lot of shots from wide angle to mid and full zoom. Then I took a few liberties in my editing to see what kind of different scenes that I could get, ok!! Also, a couple of the shots were full zoom of 3 very bright 'stars', besides the bright moon. Hope you enjoy them all!! Later, 'Viper'

Sunshine!! ;-))

Well Hallelujah!! The snow quick for awhile and we got up this morning to beautiful, glorious, welcome, SUNSHINE!! So of course I had to take some pictures of this most welcome site, eh!! The first 10 shots (#7114-7124) were taken at our front door and the next 8 shots (#7125-7132) were taken at our back door. So you can see what a beautiful site we see every day, eh!! As you can see ... I'm still trying to capture just that 'special' shot by zooming and/or turning my camera 90 degrees for those 'tall' shots, eh!!

I did do some editing on most of these shots to give me what I think is the best of both worlds, between way to dark trees to showing a bit of the greenery that I can see with my eyes when taking these types of shots. But the last 5 shots are straight from the camera as far as the color or shading, because I did not want to lose the deep blue of the sky, right!! ;-))

Ok, I've teased you enough I'm guessing. The Blog Picture to the top is of a newly found species of Lobster that has a hair or fur substance on the arms mostly. I saw it on the NBC4 news last night the 10th of March and did a quick check on Google afterwards to learn more about it. In doing that search I found this picture on FoxNews that was so much better than the couple of shots I took with my camera and shooting it on the news cast, eh!! ... Later, 'Viper'

Guess what ... it's SNOWING!! ;-))

Well, what can I say ... but that it's snowing again. It started a little before noon today and has continued since then. So of course I saw some 'new' pictures to shot. Like this shot of some 'baby' pine trees that the snow just started to sticking on, eh!! I even got a few snowflakes in the shot too.

I tried getting some 'up close' shots, even if I was using 100% zoom on my camera. All of these pictures were taken from my front door or back door, with the exception of #7098 which was taken thru my office window with full zoom, eh!! Hope you enjoy these 'fresh' snow pictures and wish that I could send you some or all too!! I'm ready for Spring!! . . . Later, 'Viper'

Snow, Rain, Sleet & Wind

In this group of pictures of the past few days, we've had a lot of variety mentioned in the title, eh!! We'd be watching tv and then our satellite reception would start breaking up, go out for a few minutes or a few hours, then it'd rain for a while and tv would come back on, then it'd start to sleeting, and on and on, eh!!

If you'll notice in the last few pictures, you can see a couple of what looks like white pvc piping on the right sides of 2 trees about in the middle view area, right. This is what was left after high winds were blowing the heavy falling wet snow up against the trees. These shots were taken early the following morning and hadn't melted away as yet.

Also, in these same few shots if you'll look even closer yet, you can see the moss or lichen growing on the tree trunks too. You'll also see a black Lab that keeps coming around here, looking for food and chasing my two cats. Damn neighbors that don't keep their dogs under control and just let them wander all over, eh!!
Till next time, 'Viper'

Beautiful Ice Sculptures

Hi Everyone!!
Here's something a little different for a change instead of looking at only my pictures, eh!! My ebuddy Evelyn Malroy sent me these pictures today and I thought I'd share them with you all, by adding them to my Blog. I just hope you enjoy them as much as I do, eh!! Thanks, Evelyn!! ;-)) ~ Later, 'Viper'