"Lions 'n Tigers 'n Bears...Oh my!"

Finally! Pat and I were well enough to go on our first photo outing in weeks 'n weeks. We chose the zoo because we could sit in the shade as often as we needed. So, the lions were sleeping out of sight, but I did get the "Tigers 'n Bears" and the "oh my"s:

"Hey...you wouldn't be following me, now would you?":
"I don't care how sappy I look; I love this water on a hot day!": (This bear was behind smudgy glass)

"Ahhhhh!":

"Boy, did hat feel good!":

This baby gorilla was behind glass - phooey. He looks like he is reaching for help, but oh no! He could scamper like a pro clear to the top:

I call this, "Happy Anniversary!":

ICE PATTERNS ALL AROUND

During our recent quick-freeze, which included a White Christmas - yay! - the Old Mill Pond road was open for only a brief time, and I lucked out. This is my favorite reflection perspective, but ice was there instead. Not an exciting photo, but it was an exciting outing.




The refraction in this ice drop (the size of an infant's fingernail) is of some trees in our front yard and the mountain in the background:

This refraction shows our porch trellis and a spray of this same daphne bud. These are melting ice drops:

For this I wanted to use my macro lens, but didn't dare switch out because of the bitter cold and the floating ice chrystals. Do spiders stop construction when it freezes?

The ice was melting from a branch, but hadn't quite lost its grip:

This ice drop shows a tree still flocked in frozen snow and a little bit of our first blue sky; no macro lens here either:

During the most frigid of the winds, snow was blasted against our windows and stayed for days:

Snow enhances the design on a patio table: