2 Things @ Once

Cloud Races

This weekend, I spent a good amount of time out in the backyard, enjoying the sunshine, warm temps and hours of evening daylight. Today it was fairly windy and all day long I noticed that the lower level of small puffy clouds were tearing through the sky from west to east, while the upper layer of wispy cloud cover seemed not to move. Other than the bombastic thunderstorm that started our day, the storms forecasted never materialized.

Panorama of the Frozen Lakefront

Thought I'd take a break from my BVI trip journal to feature a shot of the ice-encrusted lake from this weekend--to put it all in a little perspective. There's ice as far as the eye can see and none of it moving. Chicago is hiding behind the trees on the right-hand side of the image.

(Click on the image to see it larger.)

Winter Scenes

The Lakefront at Loyola on a Chilly Friday Afternoon

The ice between the rocks and the waves is where the lake had frozen. It will probably all be melted by Friday, when we have a bit of a warm up.

Lake Calm

The lake was a lot calmer yesterday than it was last weekend. All the action was in the skies. In all, we probably got around nine inches of white stuff. And as I type this, a light snow is beginning to fall but it shouldn't add up to much.

The small icebergs in the lake are pylons from an old pier (from long before my time.) You can barely see the gently rolling swells of the lake.

The Sound of Winter (Take 2)

Windchill on the Water

Lake Michigan at Lawrence Avenue

This Video Does Not Convey How Bitterly Cold It Was

I shot this video on Saturday afternoon, as the pink of the setting sunset was fading and the wind chill was about 5 degrees. Lake Michigan was gorgeous and the waves at Lawrence Avenue were pretty cool, rolling in from the east and then buffeting back into the lake from the retaining wall on the shore. The water coming from two directions created the neat effect of a steep peak of waves rolling horizontally to the shore like a sea serpent.

In the minute that I took to shoot this (I've edited it down slightly) I nearly froze my fingers off holding the iPhone. Serious pain.

At the beginning of the clip you can see, way off on the horizon, the water intake crib that was often our destination marker for sailing over the summer.

There was a flock of birds surfing and diving in the frigid water. (Portions of the lake had frozen along the shore and there was ice floating out in the middle.) In this clip you can see them just off the embankment. These are common goldeneyes who are wintering here. Brrr. But considering they came in from Alaska, this is a warm up for them.

Mother Nature Is Sure Making Nice

NaBloPoMo, Day 22

Twenty two days into November and we're still enjoying temperatures in the fifties. Unheard of. It certainly doesn't do much for your productivity when you keep jumping outdoors to enjoy what surely must be the last of the nice weather before we hunker down for the bitter cold of winter. Or so we've been telling ourselves for the last two weeks. Not that I'm complaining. I'm thrilled that I have yet to take out my winter coat.

Temps take a bit of a dip come Thanksgiving with the first chance for snow showers. I'll be in San Diego for the holiday and like anyone from the Midwest who travels anywhere warm and sunny between Nov and May, I'm hoping for a gripping cold spell here while I'm away.

Just a Moment Down by the Lake

NaBloPoMo, Day 19

Winter's coming.