Posted October 26th, 2017

Ice on the Mirror

The onset of winter is always a bit of a melancholy time for me, anticipating the long season of sometimes brutal northern weather that lies ahead, knowing I will not see liquid water on this lake again for about seven months. But I also find it rather calming. My autumns are hectic with getting prepared for winter, always too much to do in too little time. Exacerbating the stress, I never know just how much time I have left, as the snow can come to stay without warning anytime from late September to early November. Once that happens, much of what I haven’t gotten done will not get done. But as long as I have completed the essentials by then, I can relax with the satisfaction that I have accomplished what I needed to do and acceptance that I hadn’t achieved all I had hoped. That is the point where I am now. I shot this photo two weeks ago. Since then, enough snow has fallen that it is very unlikely to melt again before spring. But the yard is all cleaned up, everything stowed away. The garden has been fully harvested and cleaned out, the vegetables that can be stored have been properly processed and packed. The freezer is well stocked with wild berries. I haven’t yet converted my ATV from wood cutting mode to snow plowing mode. With snow on the ground, I can’t haul the trailer on the steep trails of the crown land where I get most of my wood, but for now I am still able to pick away at the scattered dead trees on my own 6 hectares. There are a few other things I have yet to do and the inevitable stuff I have to let slide when winter comes too soon. But the pressure is off, I am ready enough for winter and now I can allow myself more leeway to pause and savour the scenery ... and dedicate more time to my photography.
Pentax K-1, Pentax HD D FA 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 ED DC WR @ 53mm, f/9, ISO 100