SNOW!!!

IT SNOWED! Finally, after so much time thinking it just wasn't going to, we got a real Minnesota blizzard. I was so glad. Anyway, it started snowing Sunday afternoon and pretty much went straight through to Monday afternoon, leaving behind a nice 7 inches. It was heavy to shovel. Again, me being tied up at home, I don't have as many shots as I had wanted, but tomorrow Mike's in school so I can go out and re-shoot the references that I want. I figure that I had intended to do these projects with snow in them in the first place, and since it's finally here it's still not too late to do just that.

So I did go out briefly today (between running errands) to Silver Lake, which is a sort of famous local spot. The lake is man-made, but heated by the local coal-power electricity plant (which uses the water to cool boilers), so the water doesn't completely freeze during the winter no matter the temperature. It's like a sauna for the geese, and when the temp drops below 15 or so (like today) the water steams. The lake has the largest year-round population of Canada Geese in the lower 48, and the population triples during winter as migrating flocks decide to stay. Today the high temp was around 13 degrees with a stiff wind--meaning the wind chill was like -10 degrees, which as I found out is DAMN COLD. I tried to walk the paths around the lake, but when my extremities went numb after about 2 minutes, I'm sorry to say that I simply chickened out on that. I did manage to get some very nice shots right out of the car and on the shore of the lake, though, so there's plenty to give an idea of the area. I'm thinking of ways to do a very atmospheric geese painting, possibly on the water in thick fog. Lots of light blues.

So that's all for now folks, but I am hoping to start in on at least the bluejay painting, and the bobcat by the weekend. I bought canvases for each and prepped them this weekend (three coats of gesso+sanding), so I'm more or less ready.