KING OF TACK

        I walked by a house a few days ago and every inch of the yard and house some decoration on it or in it. 

        There's no exaggeration when  I say all surfaces were covered by some kind of decoration. 

       There is much to choose from when it comes to dressing things up for the season. This guy/gal bought everything they saw and placed it wherever it would fit. There was no plan to fit things together as to color or size or lights. Big stuff , little stuff it was all there in the yard. They had many of the big inflatable figures which seem to be quite popular. 

       Some people will go by this place and think it was great. I would like to see a lot less glitter

       I went back at night and tried to get a photo but it would have been much better in the daytime. In the day I had a little more elevation so could look down a bit on the area. 

      So I nominate these people for the King and Queen of tack. (tackiness)

THE JACK RABBIT

     We have the pleasure of having a large jack rabbit population in the city. I've seen them in front of the downtown library so they are right downtown.

     The jack rabbit is fairly large. Length varies from 22 to 26 in and weight from 5.5 lb. to 9.5 lb. 

     They are mostly active at night but usually remain resting in the day. In my subdivision there may be 5 to 12 animals and they visit my yard very often. 

     These rabbits turn white for the winter. That's what this post is going to be about. Most years all animals have their white coat long before this time. This year there are a number of animals that have a winter coat but they are mostly brown. That's what I'm wondering about. Why are these animals still brown rather than white?

     I took the first photo on Nov. 25. The ears stay brown and the ear tips are black. The second photo was taken Dec. 7. I believe this to be the same animal. It has two forms under my raspberries. A form is a place that is smoothed out and they stay there all day.

     This animal will probably keep spending time in my yard every 4 or 5 days until something scares it off. I'll keep watching. 

      

MORE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

          The other night when I visited City Hall Park, I got quite a few photos. I just had to turn around and I had more photos. Some will look the same as there are similar light displays. 

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

       Our city spends time, effort and money to decorate the downtown for Christmas. It centers around city hall and city hall park.

      If you don't go out and see it you're missing something. I went out last night to have a look when it was still fairly mild. 

      So here's my look. 

WINTER

     Winter is not a season; it's a celebration.  Anamika Mishra

      It is certainly reasonable for you to take issue with this quote. Where I live at Red Deer , Alberta, Canada, many people certainly dislike winter. 

      There are many other types of winter in the world. We don't know much about each other's winter. I've been to Hawaii and Phoenix in the winter. They are very different to this winter. 

    People in the last post commented that they would not like to experience my winter. There is a condition called SAD (Seasonal Affective disorder) which is a situation many people find themselves in at the beginning of winter. It's real. They suffer a number of conditions as they don't look forward to winter. 

    I on the other hand rather like winter. I don't like it as much as when I was younger. I would like to be able to get out and cross country ski, skate or hike. One has to sort of attack winter . Get out there and enjoy the time. 

    I was in the Arctic where we did not have a sunrise for 6 weeks. I enjoyed it but I was young and single. I got out all the time. Some people remained in their house and only went out to go to work. That was terrible. Some people suffered a great deal in those winters. 

                                Senior skating

           Cross country skiing. I wish I was still out there.

    Set tracks make skiing more enjoyable and you can go faster. 

   

GRAY NOVEMBER SKIES

      We usually think as November being dull and cloudy. The days are short. Today the sun rose at 8:19 and set at 4:27. That meant 8 hours and 8 minutes of sun. 

     However , there is one bright spot on the horizon. 

    When driving at these times the sun is so low all day that it just nicely shines in your car windows no matter what time of day it is. So in the morning if you are going east you look almost directly into the sun. At noon the sun is brighter but is still shines directly in the car windows, Same thing going west in the afternoon. 

    So November days may be dull with weak sun as it's on an angle that  is going through much of the atmosphere. But since the rays are low they hit you in the eye.

     Well, it could be  worse. Sunrise in Inuvik today is 12:34 and sunset 2:48 for 2 hours and 14 minutes of sun. 

     Here's two shots of the same thing from Nov. 19

PHOTOS

    I'm not a photographer. Don't argue with me on that one. I take photos. That is all. 

    However, the other day I came across something that was interesting and took a photo. 

    So here's the photo and then I'll tell you what my problem is. 

    I was standing on a little footbridge and looked into a little pond on the creek and I saw  crystal clear reflection , You can see ice on the edge of the pond. 

    Then I looked around for some perspective. Normally you would open things up and show the trees on the bank and the reflections together. 

   Well that wouldn't work. I was on a foot bridge . The image was quite far down . the tree was on a high bank. Even if I did take the bridge railing off I couldn't get the whole image. 

   So I'll have to be content with a pretty image and complete lack of perspective. 

   I went to the other side of the bridge and there was the typical reflection photo. So you see the trees and reflection in the same photo.

    This came out of my walk on Nov. 19.