Last week was rather busy. Work (mostly electrical) continued at the house so I wasn’t able to get out much. In any case it was a rather rainy gloomy week. I did manage to get in a few walks around the lake with the dog. Eirah’s a member of the Roaring Brook Lake gardeners club. They’re looking for some pictures for their annual calendar so I thought I’d try to pull some together. I already have some older ones, but these are a few taken last week during my walks.

I had been trying to take a picture of this small island in the lake the day before. My attempts were unsuccessful as the foliage on the island always seemed to blend in with foliage on the lake shore behind. Then one day I arrived at the house very early to find fog/mist all over the lake. The mist blocked out the foliage behind the island and I got the kind of separation I was looking for. I also like the overall look of the mist covered lake.


Of course the clouds are the main interest here. I was sitting in the house late one afternoon and I noticed that the light had gotten very interesting. I grabbed the camera and rushed down to the boat dock to see if I could get something before the light changed. Then I noticed the amazing clouds. I think the vertical orientation works best to emphasize the clouds. I don’t think this will work for the calendar though as it’s landscape format rather than portrait. I have a couple in landscape format too. They work pretty well, but in my opinion nowhere near as well as this one.


A few houses away from ours there’s a a house with a post and rail fence with roses growing over it. Every time I pass it I think how quaint it looks. On this occasion as I was walking by the fence was mostly in shade, but with a couple of shafts of light penetrating through a nearby tree. I liked the contrast of the light and the shadow, as well as between the colorful rose and the grey wood of the fence.



Halloween’s coming so I thought I’d include a few pictures of the preparations for the festivities. First a ghost. I liked the purple of the hat, the orange of the hair and the yellow of the flowers. A nice contrast against the whiteness. I also liked the expression on the face, particularly around the eyes.



Another halloween figure. What’s so special about this one. Well, nothing really. It’s got a cute face, but the main reason it’s here is that I thought of combining three halloween pictures together and submitting the combined picture for the calendar: the ghost on the left, the group (see next picture below) in the middle and this one on the right. I already had the ghost and the group and I needed another one.


Halloween group. This will be the centre picture in my halloween tryptych.


I found this interesting because Roaring Brook Lake is such a well organized and tidy community. I lived in Switzerland for five years and Roaring Brook Lake is quite similar, so similar (apart from people mowing their lawns on Sundays) I’m tempted to call it ‘Little Switzerland’. So it was quite a surprise to see this bicycle in the lake. I’m surprised that it has not yet been removed. It doesn’t look as if it’s been there long though. I wonder what they did to the person responsible – took them out and shot them maybe. Beyond that I think the bicycle under the water, surrounded by weeds makes quite a nice picture. I’m not sure that the color adds much though. It might be better in black and white. I don’t think this one will make the calendar though.