First a little rant….

If you have been watching the weather for the midwest, then you already know what I and many others have been going threw.  Since the first blizzard to roll threw Missouri this year.  I have been either staying indoors away from the cold or being forced to venture out into it.   Let’s just say some of those ventures have not been of my own doing.  Now, where I live there is only one road in and one road out in one direction.   Living in a circle is not always a joyful one.  It has always amazed me that individuals who don’t live hear never read the signs that say “dead end”.  You would think they would have second thoughts coming around this circle.  It’s not exactly flat and has a tendency to go down hill a little. When road conditions are good there are no problems getting around the circle, but when it snows.  It’s a bad thing to venture down the road of no return.  I don’t say this lightly.  I have lived here many years and there has been more then few times that I have been stuck in this circle only to retreat to the garage for a shovel and some sand to get my vehicle out.  Now I don’t know about you, but after shoveling a driveway, sidewalk and 1/3 of the circle I don’t care to shovel and break ice on the rest of the circle. Normally everywhere else you can depend on the city to plow the streets, but for some reason the city every year seems to forget we exist unless they want to give you a parking ticket.  If they do happen to come down and plow the road, they do a terrible job of it.  Usually it amounts to one plow down the middle of the circle leaving two mounds of snow on each side making it difficult to get around or out. They should just leave well enough alone.  I have spent the better half of one week shoveling others out of the circle.  I’m thinking of sending the city a bill.  I guess some individuals think it makes since to travel down to the circle and turn around.  It happens all times of the day, but worst of all, it even happens early in the morning when your trying to sleep.  Spinning tires, racing engines and god only knows what does nothing but announce that your stuck and of course keep everyone up at night.  At the time of writing this piece we are do for more snow in the next day or two as if we haven’t had enough. I guess I’m do to repeat the shoveling many times over in order to keep the circle from becoming a parking lot.  I like snow and yes I want to capture some winter scenes, but if I have to keep shoveling people out in order to be assured of parking space at home then I’m in trouble.

Sorry for the little rant, but I had to get that out of my system.   With that out of the way.  I had plans to visit a sanctuary up north named Squaw Creek, but that was before the blizzard and the shut down of the highway leading to that area.  My plans were shot.  Since then I have been busy trying to figure out when I can plan this visit again.  Only by now I might have missed my chance to get the images I have been looking for.  Most of the birds that I would see there, I have been noticing flying overhead while shoveling people out of the circle.  Not wanting to waste or spoil a day shoot, I decided instead since my vehicle wasn’t going anywhere to visit a local park hopefully to photograph some winter scenes.  This park isn’t far from where I live.  It’s within walking distance actually.  Collecting my gear, I set out to walk the 3/4 of mile trip threw 8 inches deep snow and ice.  I haven’t had the chance  to transfer the images from the camera yet, so please forgive me for not having something to show in this post.  I should be getting around to that hopefully in the next few days.  This park hasn’t been the only one I have visited in the last few days. I managed to visit another park over in Independence when I was able to navigate the streets out of hear.  More on that in a later post.

The park visit wasn’t very eventful one.  My neighbor had told me the night before that he awoke early in the morning to find a 10 point buck in his back yard.  Even know I have lived hear many years.  I have always known that there happened to be deer in the wooded area next to our houses because of the tracks, but I have only seen a few deer prancing around.  I was hoping to find a group of them in the park this day, but I didn’t have much luck.  I think it was actually do to the fact that parks and recreation were plowing the parking lot and were making so much noise that I’m sure if deer were around, they were staying out of sight or running in the opposite direction.  My luck so far with this storm was terrible.  However I did manage to capture a few shots of the snow encroaching in on the creek running threw the area.  In the past I have seen red fox and other little creatures in this area.

There was no doubt they were around, just hiding out.  I wanted to capture some wildlife playing in the snow, perhaps even a bird or two.  It just goes to show you that your not always lucky in the field. You just have to take a second look around and see what else there might be of interest.  I might not have captured any wildlife at play, but that doesn’t mean I won’t the next time.

On another note I have been for sometime now making plans to visit the West Coast once again.  The last visit I wanted to capture some winter scenes.  I had thought for sure I would capture some winter photographs, but for the two weeks that I was there it didn’t even bother snowing until the last day I was there.  Darn if it didn’t start until I was on my way to the airport.  There wasn’t anything I could do but wave goodbye from the plane window while flying over.  So, we are going to hopefully change that this time around.  I’m leaving on the 2oth of January  and returning in February.  Wish me luck!  I’m thinking of trying something different this time around posting my adventures to the blog on a daily basis while up there.  Of course with limitations on baggage, weight and so forth.  I might be forced to leave my laptop at home.

Until the next time,

Chad

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