Kaw River State Park, With Ice

I paid another visit to the Kaw River State Park this month after a few really cold days, to see if there was any ice on the river. Indeed, there was.

There were bits of ice floating slowly downriver, and a small ridge of ice building up at the edge. This and all the following are from the same location, the boat ramp.

The river was an amazing blue color!

My favorite downriver view.

It was about as cold as it looks, and I did not linger.

Catching Up With the Moon

I've been getting behind here. This is the latest round of Moon pictures, hopefully in chronological order since the last ones (which were January 5th).

Full Moon night, January 8th, very cloudy. Out at Lake Shawnee as usual. It wasn't terribly cold for a January Moon shoot.

Moon in the water.

Moon in the clouds.

Clouded Moon, watery Moon. The next night was much more clear but I had something else on my plate.

This is a bit of a cheat; I couldn't take this picture from Topeka because I wasn't there. This is from west Lawrence January 26th at my sister's house, as are the two below. This is the crescent New Moon setting, and Venus looking on.

She was a beautiful sight, setting into the trees, smiling at Venus and at me.

So, this month's weather.

Because we are not having weather that changes much from day to day here recently, here's some weather from the past month. It won't be much because...it's not changing that much. I don't want to say that I am not enjoying the Winterless Winter, but, well, it's getting old.

The one above from January 7, when it was super-cloudy and looked cold, but was not.

A nice sunset from January 9. We have had several of these; this from behind the Blackbird Espresso Cafe & Bistro in Fleming Place.

Wait, what? Snow? Well, sort of. A tiny bit. For a very brief time on January 11, after dark.

I liked this sky in the late afternoon, January 12.

Another sunset, January 12. Through the trees behind the recycling bins in Gage Park.

After many days of mostly uninteresting weather, a tiny bit of rain in the evening of January 22. From inside the car, behind my house.

Today is the 27th, and since the last picture there has been no more weather I felt like picturing. Some blue skies, some not so blue, but overall, it feels like no weather at all. I would love to picture some.

Kansas History Center Nature Trail

This is someplace I had never been before, that I decided to explore Friday afternoon with Rich. It's on the grounds of the Kansas Museum of History. We just went on a small part of the East Trail; there is much more territory to be seen. At this time of year it was very quiet and the creek was low. I'll have to see what it looks like later.

This little piece of creek got separated from the rest and made a tiny oxbow. There was an educational sign illustrating how this process happens.

I don't know for certain what these hot pink berries are, maybe coralberry? (Edit--ID provided by Sandra Siebert as buckbrush, but I'm still not sure of genus and species). They may be regarded by some as an invasive pest akin to honeysuckle. Ah, found a nice link!
Their cheerful color certainly did catch my eye in amongst all those browns.

Evidence of human thoughtlessness always makes me sad. And angry.

This marvelous, magical tangle of roots and branches was along and even over the little creek at one place. Wouldn't you expect something or someone to be peering back at you?

Mooning a Little More

Some more bright January

Today at Gage Park it was merry and bright. I was hoping for some ducks or at least geese. I heard one duck quack once but my best duck impersonation could not lure it out. So, some leaves under ice, some thin ice with beautiful sky and trees in it, some bright sun behind a tree, and a happy squirrel taking a late lunch up in his tree.

2012 At Last (Or At First)

A couple of pictures from the second day of the New Year. These are from the Memorial Park Cemetery at 6th & Gage. The sky was really this blue, and the sun was really this bright. It's not as warm as it looks so the sun felt good.

This memorial is, according the answer I got from someone on Facebook, a marker for a formerly exclusively Masonic section of the cemetery. There is indeed a Masonic emblem on the base, which I didn't notice while taking the picture, or when I first posted it here.

And then of course there is the Moon. Rather pretty today, out there in the bright blue sky in the middle of the afternoon. She's always a welcome sight to me.