I wrote, worked, and researched this morning and watched gloomily as the ice and snow pelted down and cast a shadow over the farm. The wind was fierce at times and howled right through the windows. My hat blew right off my head and halfway down the mountain.

Zinnia, Lab through and through, took off after it without being asked and retrieved. This was great fun for her.

We didn’t get much snow, just rain and hail. The ground is soaked with water; the farmers can’t even think of cutting the first hay yet.

I hurt my back yesterday hauling bags of topsoil, so I decided to take it easy.

But I’m never good at that, so I decided to go to Scotch Hill when the storm eased and catch some of the beautiful ski and cloud images that I know by now come right after a storm clears. And then I went to the gym, it is calming for me, and I think clearly there – no distractions.

I was not disappointed by the beautiful images I found. I tried to nap but couldn’t.

We are eager and ready for our four-day vacation, which begins this coming Sunday and ends on the following Wednesday.

I won’t be reading e-mail, texts, or blogging and just reading, sleeping, and taking good care of my wonderful wife and partner. I will miss the blog, but it’s probably a good thing to have a brief vacation from one another.

I was pleased with the photos I took today. I didn’t do any post-editing; I didn’t need to, Mother Earth did all I could have wanted, and she was waiting for me. I froze my butt off upon that windy hill, Zinnia, and I loved every second of it. My photography is teaching me to think and wait.

I know this image looks like a painting, but that is the zoom effect of my camera. The mountain top was sitting right under a cloud when I arrived, and I  zoomed to capture that. I did not do any photo editing on the computer for this journal.

My color camera captures the color; the Leica captures the mood. I love working with them both.

I took this photo of our chicken killer tonight; Bud is a Jekyll and Hyde dog. He can be a relentless and unforgiving hunter, and he can be like a kitten, always curled up and looking for love. We love him still and always. Let dogs be dogs.

By now, my patience was paying off. The sky was opening up. I am learning when to go out and look and where. I’m happy to have found Scotch Hill Road.

According to my Cloud Book, these are stratocumulus castellanus clouds; they rise from a horizontal base, growing upwards to the colder levels, developing into cumulus congestus clouds, which I believe are at the top of the photo. Whenever a storm ends, I grab the camera, head outside, and drive around—what a gift to me. The sky is always telling me a story.

The Leica doesn’t zoom much, and I am grateful for that. It forces me to see the beauty in what’s right in front of me, but the mountain, covered in mist, is captured softly but beautifully. The trees are talking to me.

My Fate At Rest series is famous. Many people love her manic energy and free spirit, and it is always calming and soothing to see her rest, which she doesn’t ever do in daylight. If Fate can do it, I can do it.