First Snow

[larry cottrill]

First snow of the new season here in central Iowa. Very inconvenient in view of the fact that my younger son talked us into tearing off the old and rather battered front deck and replacing it with a new, larger one. Our house was very typical of new "country places" 25 years ago, a so-called "walkout ranch"; but all the new homes are huge, spacious caverns of many roofs and gables. I always think you'd need a staff just to keep up with the cleaning. On the other hand, I don't have room for a "shop" space, so my junk is all over the place.

I like the way these shots turned out, not so much composition-wise but because many of them are practically monochromatic, occasionally with just a surprising little splash of color here and there.

The horses care little about the rigors of winter, as long as they have a pad of hay thrown out for them every couple of hours. If it's not too windy, they sometimes like to play in the snow, even lying down to roll around in it. These guys spend their nights indoors, in the new, well-insulated metal barn. It isn't really cold yet (just below freezing in the daytime) and their winter coats are growing in nicely. So before long, they will both have a rather dull, fuzzy look. Then in the spring, the winter hair sheds off in handfuls, and then you know winter's really over.

Enjoy!

L Cottrill