A Winter Wonderland!

I woke up early this morning for some reason.  I looked out the bedroom window and saw all the trees covered with snow! It was a perfect snow - the flakes were light and the temp was not too cold so the flakes would stick to the tiniest branches in the tree.  It was like frosting covering everything.  I went for my usual walk down by the harbor, and everywhere I looked I saw photographs. All my usual views looked so much different because of the snow changing everything.  It was non-stop shooting and I have to do a lot more editing.  It was such a great time of shooting because it was a time of heightened awareness and I couldn't shoot fast enough!  What a way to start the day!

 

The Cemetary

Today we went to a burial at the Cemetery of the Holy Rood which is behind St. Brigid's church in Westbury, which you can see in the distance.  I have never seen the church from this view and I have never been in this cemetery before.

What was so surprising were all the mausoleums that lined the road we were on.  Some were really large and some were quite small, and I couldn't believe how many there were here.

Some were simple and some were more elaborate.

I noticed that this one had a complete glass door that you could look through, which was a surprise.

This was so interesting to see the inside  of one of these structures.  This one was quite beautiful.

And this one was so small.  I would love to know more about these and why some people prefer them to a burial in the ground.  The Cemetery of the Holy Rood is the oldest of Catholic Cemeteries of Long Island’s four locations. Sitting at 67 acres in Westbury NY. Holy Rood serves the Catholic faithful in Nassau County. The oldest part of Holy Rood was originally the burial grounds of Saint Brigid’s Cemetery, which was founded in 1856.  I need to do some more reading to understand all this better.

 

The Tiny Leaves

Every year I photograph the Japanese maple leaves, both from our tree and a couple of other Japanese maples down the street.  When I have photographed them before they are on my driveway.  But this is so much better to have them on top of ivy.  It is just much prettier.  These leaves are wonderful because they are so delicate and I never tire of looking at them.  I did this photograph a week or so ago, and now they are either all gone, or all shriveled up.  They are the last leaves to fall - at least 2 weeks or more after all the other leaves are gone.  Fall is over, and Winter is 10 days away.

 

A Sucker for a Sunset

I am almost embarrassed to be showing you this photograph.  I went for my walk today.  It was 35 degrees out and there was a 15 MPH wind blowing in from over the water.  So when I stopped to take a picture, I sure didn't stop for long.  So there is nothing subtle about a sunset.  I tend to appreciate more subtle qualities in a landscape.  But, what the heck, here is a beautiful photograph of a golden sun going down surrounded by these cumulus clouds.  OK, you got me, I'll shoot it!

 

Reindeer at the Vanderbilt

I was walking to the Planetarium after parking my car and the driveway goes past these ancient Corinthian columns.  There are six columns in total and are about a thousand years old.  Each column is 14 feet high and weighs 4,000 pounds.  Of course what jumped out for me were the illuminated reindeer.  The "V" is made from planted hedges.  I just thought it was such an unusual scene, ancient and modern.

 

Tiny Japanese Maple

This caught my eye when I woke up one morning and looked out the bedroom window, across the lawn.  This is the concrete block wall that seperates our property from our neighbor Judy's property.  The wall is covered in ivy.  These slim branches are from our Japanese maple tree which has seeded itself from the wind blowing whatever is on the tree that propagates itself, across the lawn.  There are two slim branches that come out of the ground.  What grabbed my attention, of course, are the brilliant yellow and orange and red leaves on the same small branches.  They are more dramatic, of course, seen against the dark green background of the ivy.  The last gasp of fall in our yard.

 

The Japanese maple, Seen a Different Way

Here it is once again, my famous Japanese maple on the front lawn.  But for a change, seen from above looking down, instead from below looking up.  I was taken by the sense that the leaves looked like a wavy line of something going across the picture.  It is a completely different way of seeing this tree, for me! It is worth mentioning that the Japanese maple is the last tree in the neighborhood to loose it's leaves as Fall progresses which is always nice.