So I was sitting out on the patio...

Ok, maybe I wasn't.

There's a bit of snow, you see.

Seriously, though. That's a lot of snow. I know I've been complaining about it, but since I finally got around to taking a few pictures of it the other day I thought maybe now you'd believe me.

For anyone not familiar with Alberta in the winter, we're not exactly known for having lots of snow. Some snow, yeah, and it does get cold (I'm sure you've heard about that part. Everyone seems to), but we don't usually get piled on like this. It's been pretty much unbelievable. And it's not even January yet. Almost, but it's not. To have this much snow right now? Well, I have childhood pictures of a couple of years when we really got dumped on, but it hasn't happened for a long time.

I mean, look at this. What you might not notice right away is that the hedge is so weighted down that it toppled right into the pathway. Dad went out and knocked some of the snow off after I took this photo, but it wouldn't surprise me if we find out that it's permanently bent in the spring.

The snow's up to the deers' bellies when they leave the path and try to wade through towards the dogwood.

Um, big hint, by the way. If you're in this area and you have deer around, don't plant dogwood if you don't want them in your yard. It's one of their favourite winter browses.

I actually saw deer yesterday. Two whitetails, and then later about five or six mulies. It's not all that uncommon to see the mulies, but we hardly ever see the whitetails in the yard. They're too skittish to stay around for very long. I suppose that it might seem a little odd to some of you that we have deer herds just wandering around the neighbourhood, but Dad's place is fairly close to the outskirts of town and there are a couple of wooded lots in the area, so there are plenty of places for deer to hang out.

Um, anyway. You didn't come here to read about deer and snow, I suppose. I'm not sure why you did come here, though. Maybe you want to hear about...

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS?

Yeah, I did pretty well as usual. I got a gift card that I very much look forward to using, and you'll be hearing lots more about tea (lucky you. I'm sure my two fans are really looking forward to it. Toughies, though. I like tea), but the one that's going to affect the blog the most is the fact that I got a new lens.

Did you hear? I got a new lens.

It's my first prime lens for this camera, and it's been years since I've used a prime lens at all so I'm looking forward to it. It's a 50mm f/1.8... oh, hang on. I'll just link for the nerds out there. Gimme a sec.

Here it is.

Now, bear in mind that I'm a neophyte when it comes to all the specs, but what all that stuff means to me and my style of pointless photography is that even though it's a wide angle rather than a macro (or micro, as Nikon calls them) I should be able to get some decent close-ups while still using it for more general portraits and things like that. The reviews are good, it should work well in low light, the bokeh's supposed to be great, and the little bit of playing around the house I did yesterday makes me happy.

Let the search for even weirder pointless photography begin.



You're ready for this, right? It's gonna mean more spiders come spring...





Yay spiders.