outtakes and deleted scenes

Sap’s rising. How do I know? My incredible powers of observation and intuition, naturally. Here’s today’s evidence:

- the occasional slide and thump of icicles coming off the roof
- chickadees singing in the woods
- recent daytime thaws, and nighttime refreezings, have turned the driveway into a sheet of ice
- this hibernator (yours truly) has roused herself and gone into the woods on either skis or snowshoes several times over the past several days. That, alone, is sufficient evidence that spring must be on its way.

Apropos of nothing, it takes a fair amount of drivel to produce anything worth salvaging on this blog. To wit: here are some recent outtakes:

Here’s your basic flash-and-focus mishap. It’s…what is this…(I have to look at the pictures I got immediately afterward to tell what I was up to…) Oh, OK, it’s a hop hornbeam bud, OBVIOUSLY.

 

 

In this one, I’m attempting to focus on a willow bud. That’s the bright, fuzzy thing at the top of the picture. You’re looking at my gloves clenched between my knees and the tips of my snowshoes.

 

Here’s a stunner! Look how dried up my fingertips are! Unbelievable. Haven’t you heard of moisturizer? This one’s a beech bud. You can also see evidence of a protracted battle I had with a fountain pen earlier that day. (Purple ink on my fingers.)

 

An attempt at a making-out-with-Kevin self-portrait. Instead, you get to see mud, slush, and general nastiness.