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Massey Monday: Snownado

Massey takes after her mom...completely enthralled with weird spinning vortices. 

Thirsty Thursday: The Morning After

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Trader Joe's Cinnamon Blossom Tea...served hot!

Thirsty Thursday here again...time to pour something yummy (or something warm) and make those weekend plans. And since the photos below have an icy feel to them, I highly recommend that TJ's tea to keep you warm.

These photos are from our trip to Iowa. The morning after our arrival, which was a day late due to the raging blizzard. The day after a cancelled flight, a delayed flight, an aborted landing, an actual landing, a bag stuck in airline bag jail, a crazy drive home past the truck grandpa put in the ditch, and a generator-powered evening catching up with my parents, I woke up early, bundled up, and wandered around the farm at sunrise. The 50 mph winds and driving ground blizzard were gone. All that was left was a brilliant sky and clean, white snow.

Wind Sock

Twilight Tree

Fence

Loop

Broken Tree

Pine

Driveway

Windbreak

Bins

Soybeans

Beanstalk
Wire

Snow Ripples

Feets

Snow shapes

Fence Line

There is something magically beautiful on the first clear morning after a Midwestern blizzard. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with them too often anymore. Get out there and find your own beautiful morning this weekend!

UPDATE: If you'd like to purchase any of these photographs, they are available on our store under the Iowa Gallery.

Thirsty Thursday: Fingers Crossed

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: Scheid Reserve Chardonnay (Tied for 1st on my chard list)

Hey Welliver Photography fans! Welcome to another addition of Thirsty Thursday...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. We are headed off to backpack this weekend, or so we hope!

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed up to backpack to George Lake in the Kaiser Wilderness. The in-house meteorologist blew the weekend forecast, and long story short, without a four-season tent, we were snowed out of our first backpacking trip of the season. So much for the unofficial start of summer! So this weekend we'll try again, and hopefully the trail doesn't look like this... But we definitely can't say it wasn't beautiful, even if we didn't camp in it. Get out there and doing something this weekend...and hope you get a good weather report before you go!

Thirsty Thursday: Sunshine and Mountains

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: Hammond Grenache

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Terry is headed off to Colorado this weekend, so I figured a few mountain scenes containing Terry were in order.

Have I mentioned on this blog that Switzerland was abso-freakin-lutely beautiful?! Even without the cute boy the scene is nice to look at. Get out there and find your own pretty mountain scene this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: What a View

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: 2007 Lockwood Reserve Red Blend

Its Thirsty Thursday once again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I was pretty excited to share one of our adventures from our recent trip to Switzerland, but a busy week and work topped off with a dog who made friends with a skunk on the trail run tonight means I haven't had time to put together a good photo story from our adventures in the Alps just yet.

So tonight I share just one photo. Its one of my favorites from the Alps. It makes me happy. We'd just hiked to the top of Faulhorn above Grindelwald. The view was great, as was the company. Terry. Eiger. Mönch. Jungfrau. Awesome.

Stay tuned for more photos from the Alps. And in the mean time, get out there and do something this weekend...and if you're in California, try to stay dry.

Thirsty Thursday: We Were Here

Rambler: Beth (photo from Terry)
Drink at Hand: Brazin Old Vine Zin

An abbreviated version of Thirsty Thursday tonight because, let's face it, we're ridiculously jet lagged from our ridiculously awesome trip to Switzerland. You'll see a lot of Switzerland in the coming weeks, but tonight I'll just share one image.

On our last day in the Bernese Oberland region, we did a hike from Grindelwald First to Faulhorn via Winterwanderroute 50. Yes, the Swiss actually groom their hiking trails in winter (more on that in a later post), making the incredibly amazing beauty of the Alps accessible to a wide range of winter activity seekers. Pretty cool! On our hike back down from Faulhorn, I found this fun little bump to scramble up, and speed hiker Terry turned around to snap the photo. Look for the little yellow speck in the middle of the photo...that's me! The peak on the left in the frame is Rötihorn.

So while we recover from our Euro adventure, we hope all of you get out there and do something awesome this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday Bonus Edition: Snowy Tree

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: 2010 Hallauer Blauburgunder (no idea, but we had to buy a screw top since Terry decided to leave the corkscrew in his carry-on luggage)

That's right, a bonus Thirsty Thursday...and we've gone international. I thought I'd share a quick snap I took from the train between Luzern und Interlaken...the windows on the train opened! Pretty sweet, and well, just plain pretty. Pretty, as in, absolutely freakin' beautiful!

Thirsty Thursday: Winter Trees

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: 2010 Tolosa Grenache Rosé

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I dug into the archives for this week's edition, focusing on a subject that is so easy to overlook.

We were lucky enough to go home to Iowa for this past Christmas. Despite the freezing temperatures, yes, I did say lucky to go. I don't often get home to visit the family, so its always nice to see everyone. Besides visiting family, however, Iowa does have some beautiful scenes. That's right, I said Iowa is beautiful. Maybe its not the obvious beauty of wildflower-filled meadows with snow-capped mountains in the background or a frenetic scene of crashing waves and rugged rocks of an ocean shoreline, but still beautiful. I think since I don't get back that often I appreciate the beauty of the rural landscape more now than I did growing up.

While living in the mild coastal climate here in California is great, I do miss seasons. One of the things I miss most from the Midwest is the amazing dawn and dusk color gradient of the sky during winter. The lack of humidity brings out an amazing palate of pinks and purples and indigo at sunrise and sunset. The colors are so intensely vibrant on a crystal clear morning or evening. Frigidly cold, but vibrantly beautiful. I don't see those colors here at home. I also love the shape of the naked trees during winter. The trees look so different in winter, stripped of leaves, twigs twitching in the lightest breezes.

Enjoy some images snapped on a very cold day at my parent's house. My fingers may have suffered some minor frostbite, but I didn't mind. I couldn't resist the stark skeletons and brilliant colors.

Get out there and find something beautiful this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: More Aspens

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Hot apple cider...mmmmm

Thursday is here again already, so that means its time for the weekly installment of Thirsty Thursday. Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I just got back from a drizzly and chilly trail run, hence the warm drink in my hand! Fall continues to slide into winter, and sadly tonight will probably be the last weeknight trail run of the year with the time change coming this weekend.

Before I let fall scoot all the way out of my mind, I have to share some more autumn color. Last fall I spent an week in the Eastern Sierra chasing golden aspens and snow-capped peaks. I happened to be there in the days immediately following the first major snow of the year. This makes the commute from the central coast over the Sierra Crest a pain in the rear, but it was beautiful. This was the scene at North Lake. Yeah, not your typical North Lake perspective, but I was happy to work for this view away from the masses on the shore.

Sometimes the close-ups are just as good as the big views.

There's a big storm headed for California this weekend, so the high country will likely see quite a bit of snow. Heck, the snow level here is supposed to drop to around 3000' by tomorrow night. Who knows, maybe there will be a little dusting on the local peaks (probably not, but maybe). The first snow of the year is always magical. So clean and fresh.

Get out there and find something pretty to look at this weekend!

 

Thirsty Thursday: Snow Yosemite

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: 2008 Yosemite View Chardonnay...well that worked out rather fortuitously!

The last 2 weeks have been anything but "springlike" around California. Here on the coast we've had some serious rain and a some wind to go along with it, while the Sierra is getting pounded with storm after storm, each dumping feet of snow up there. This week has been so bad in the high country that all the roads to Yosemite are closed from snow, ice, flooding, rockslides, downed trees/power lines, or a combination there of (though I just heard that the main highways will be open again tomorrow). All this talk of a snowy Yosemite Valley made us think back to our own snow-venture we had up there back in 2008. Terry's parents came out to visit for Christmas, and on Christmas day we headed up to the national park, dragging a lovely winter storm along with us that dumped roughly 18" of snow over the course of 2 days.

The great thing about visiting Yosemite in a snow storm on Christmas is that you pretty much have the place to yourself. Unfortunately all the snow made a lot of spots inaccessible, but we were still treated to some fantastic scenery. We all wished we had snowshoes to get off the roads and out of the parking lots for a bit, but it was still beautiful. The snow stuck on the trees for the duration of the three days we were there, which accordingly to locals, is a rarity...it normally falls off or blows off as soon as the sun comes out. Blue skies and snowy trees...doesn't get much better. Enjoy this mix of photos from both of us.

Our first hike shortly after arrival (and chaining up!)

See how hard its snowing?!

Trees and snow...made for black and white.

This is one of my favorite shots ever. Deer butts!!!

It was so cold that Bridal Veil Falls was just barely flowing.

But the Merced River still had plenty of water running.

The next day the sun came out and made everything spectacular. Terry was on fire capturing some dramatic light throughout the Valley.

Two photographers = two perspectives on the same subject.

Clearing storm.

Unfortunately we won't be making it to Yosemite any time soon. I can only imagine how incredible the park must look with all that fresh snow. Perhaps next winter. And next time we are taking snow shoes!!