Inside looking out

I haven't been much in the mood to go outside and walk around the yard lately. It's probably because of the weather -- bitter cold might be "fun" when you're reading about it, but it's not so nice when you have to live in it. Fortunately I don't have to live in it (except in tiny doses) because I work at home and don't have to leave the house for days at a time.

The sun was shining today and I thought it would be nice to take some photos of something wintry, but I just couldn't bring myself to gear up for a garden excursion. So I stayed inside and took photos from the windows. Also of the windows, or at least of the condensation on them.

***

Even with my limited choices I still managed to capture some nice images of the snow and cold I think.

I love the shadows of deciduous trees on snow. The angle of the light, the multitude of branches, the smooth canvas of the snow.

I also love the way that snow clumps on evergreen trees and shrubs. I probably should knock the snow off of these yews, but they've been loaded down before and didn't suffer from it so I'm not concerned. Plus they need a good pruning, so any damage -- however unlikely -- can probably be corrected.

I still don't understand why bird feet don't freeze, but I love their little footprints:

A few different seed heads. I rarely remove seed heads or dead perennial parts in the fall. I leave them for the birds and because I love pulling up hundreds of unwanted seedlings every spring. (The first part about the birds is true. The part about the seedlings, not so much.)

Even though our house has good windows that are relatively new, when it gets really cold (20ºF or so and below) condensation forms at the bottom edge of some of them. The views outside the window were interesting enough today, but for some reason the tiny water droplets really fascinated me. I couldn't stop taking photos of them!

After I pulled myself away from the window moisture, I headed to the back bedroom and its window that I don't look out of too often:

I'm glad I looked because it's the only window with a view of this really pretty bamboo (Indocalamus longiauritus) which is holding up to the cold and wind very well. In fact, it looks as good right now as any bamboo of any size in my yard, and is definitely the best looking of the large-leaved bamboos at this time. Beautiful!


It's supposed to warm up a little the next few days, so maybe I'll actually get outside with the camera and take a look at all of the bamboos to see how they've fared so far this winter. But if not, it's reassuring to know that I'll be able to stay warm inside and still manage to get satisfying photos of the cold, wintry outdoors that surrounds me.