Winter photos (along with a rant to keep things warm)

The weather has been cold and snowy for the past week and a half. Saturday night through Monday was bitter as the temperature dropped well below zero and the wind howled. Some of the gusts on Sunday in the 30+ mph range. But I ain’t complaining. I’ve had many fires over the past week, drank hot drinks, and best of all, have had plenty of opportunities to ski. I took these photos last Friday, when I was skiing south of town at a local nature center. The first shot is of a meadow where last August I shot a photo of a field of Queen Anne’s lace. Click here to see what this prairie looks like in the summer.
I discovered that the beavers had dammed up another creek. Two weeks earlier when I skied this section, the waters hadn’t not flooded over the banks. I love the reflections of the snow covered sticks in the water in the shot below.

Below is the dam. Notice the ice on the pond behind the dam and that the water is flowing freely under it.

This is the point on Brewster Lake. Last October, I caught a 19.5 inch bass out of this lake. As you can see, it's now well frozen. Click here for photos of the lake in the fall.
A Rant: There is political discussion going on about the Democrats holding another primary or a caucus in Michigan and Florida. I think that’s a terrible idea. I hated that we had that stupid primary that didn’t count back in early January. According to the DNC rulings, no Democratic delegates were going to be seated from Michigan or Florida. No one campaigned here and only Hillary was on the ballot, so I went over to the dark side to vote against Romney. Now, the Clinton camp says she should get the delegates she won (in the non-primary) and the Obama camp thinks there should be a caucus in the states to divide the delegates. I don’t know how they can play into either side. It makes sense to me for the DNC (as well as the Republicans who are punishing the state by not seating ½ of the delegates) to stick to their guns and tell each state they didn’t play by the rules (regardless of how unfair they may have been), but the rules are the rules. If they want to allow the delegates to go to the convention, that's fine, but don't let them vote for the nominees. Of course, I'm pretty sure you don’t read my blog to get serious politic insight (and personally, I prefer satire, but that muse just hasn't been around much lately).

I’m working on my follow-up to the Tap-out story, telling about the ordeal. Hopefully I’ll have it up by Friday. I also have a number of book reviews to write… But right now I am more content to sit by the fire and read or nap than write.