i take it back...

Spring is not here.

My alarm went off at 7:00 this morning. I suited up in sweats, a long-sleeved shirt, and a sweatshirt, planning to add a fleece jacket over the top and be on my way. Nope. One look out the window at the few innocent little snowflakes falling convinced me to put on my bulky winter coat and an extra pair of socks. Better safe than sorry.

At 7:20 I stopped to check the lambs. There was a light wind and the snowfall was getting steadier. I consoled myself that it wasn't sticking, and probably wouldn't.

It did.

Instead of doing my usual three-mile walk around "The Loop," as we call the rectangular stretch of road enclosing 160 acres of farmland, I took a spontaneous detour up the hill toward where I knew our neighbors would have fed their 100+ head of sheep. That didn't make my walk itself longer, but it gave me a lot more reason to stop and take pictures.

By the time I'd snapped off twenty pictures of the snowy ewes and their two- to three-month-old lambs, my camera lens was streaked with melting snowflakes and the viewfinder was fogging up. And it was snowing . . . hard.

Needless to say, I was rather frustrated. However, I turned back the way I came, tucking the dragging heels of my sweatpants into my socks to keep them from balling up with ice (which must have looked rather unusual, but if you walk around long enough with a big SLR around your neck like an oversize pendant that must be protected from the elements at all cost, people probably don't expect you to act normally anyway). Before I reached home the left side of my face was neatly plastered with snow driven by the east wind, and my supposedly water-resistant coat was resisting no longer. I imagine I must have looked something like a big purple iceberg.

The worst part of the whole excursion was failing to get any really good pictures. I decided to post a few of the "okay" ones anyway . . . alongside several of those overeager, deceptive Goldfinches getting their just deserts!!

 Here's one taken when the snow was only coming down lightly. I'm not happy with this picture at all. It's dramatic, but very bleak . . . something about it is just wrong. What do you think?

Like I said, it didn't stay "light" for long.

 Is it really April 2nd? Or could we be ahead a few months? Maybe it's April Fools a day late. . . .

 Sheep

My intention was to get some down-to-earth, farmey-type photos of the sheep eating breakfast in their usual orderly chaos, with a hint of snow to add atmosphere. I got the atmosphere part, anyway!

 

The two above were taken as the camera began to fog up somewhat, so they're not very clear. That was a big disappointment. The following two pictures turned out a little better, but there were a few too many snowflakes in the second one! I kinda like the rock pile in the background, though.

Below are pictured two of our own lambs, each about two weeks old now. I took these pictures this morning as well. The first is Thaddeus and the second is Theoden. Not pictured is our third lamb, Theodore.

Goldfinches

Thanks to the snow, I had an influx of bright yellow Goldfinches at my bird feeder today--all of them clamoring to stock up on body fat and ride out the chill. They look like little yellow cottonballs on the branches of the peach tree below.

 

 I love this one. I've been trying for days to get a good goldfinch-in-flight picture.