A walk in the workshop!

 

It's February already!

 The New Year - Happy New Year - just came and went with very pleasant weather and carried us into February! Now the winter has decided to hit hard as we are in the week of strong cold and winds. 

-36 C here has happened several nights! It makes for bone chilling times feeding the birds and checking on my Clematis seedlings in the woodwork shop in the barn!

This was a near the middle of January and the evidence of the big snow in November is still here! Thankfully we have not had to blow snow yet in February as it has been much to cold to run small engines!

We have had some amazing sundogs at the end of January as well! I missed the best part of this set over our house! But I did get the start of another set from out in the country another day!

Nature produces some of the most spectacular sights in winter! As much as the cold is a little tough the older we get it is still one of the purest times of the year!

I was very surprised to have a Plumcot seedling bloom this year in the workshop. This is a Plumcot seed from a store bought fruit and I suspect not hardy here. It is too bad there were no pollinators around to bring pollen from to see if it would produce fruit! This little tree is now nearly 4 years old and must have gotten just the right amount of cold to set flower buds this past fall! The flowers have a mild sweet scent so it could be a nice shrub/tree to have blooming near the house if it were hardy!

I have pruned it to keep the height under control and it has produced many new shoots so I think one could try some cuttings as well!

Winter is also the time to go photo shooting for Snowy Owls so we try to go about once a week or so! This year we are not seeing many on our drives of a regular route we have followed for several years. We have found at least one on nearly every trip! They are majestic to say the least. 

Lighting is a big factor and some days are better than others for sure. This one in the tree was the first time we had one fly away from the power line poles and land in a bluff of trees in full site, although some distance away! We don't have long lenses so there is always some cropping to do to get a little closer look! The photo on the right is one my wife took on another trip.   

Earlier at the beginning of winter we were fortunate on another drive to see several herds of mule deer. There were several big bucks in the one group of about 12 to 15 animals. 

Quite a site when you are just out driving! Again a strange day for the light. I try not to meddle with whatever my camera catches so these are as is!

Finally a few shots from the workshop and the Clematis seedlings growing there.

A new seedling with green to yellow coloring. Waiting to see this one outside!

Clematis crispa seedling.

 

New lighting. 6 LED 4ft. strips. Very nice light!