Winter is Coming

The other day, I noticed this woolly bear caterpillar on my back porch.

Kinda, neat, right?  I've never seen an all-black woolly bear.  At least until recently.   A former co-worker of mine, Bob Myers, posted on Facebook his picture of an all-black woolly bear.

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac

The Woolly Bear caterpillar has 13 distinct segments of either rusty brown or black. The wider the rusty brown sections (or the more brown segments there are), the milder the coming winter will be. The more black there is, the more severe the winter.

Elsewhere in the article, there's this:

there could, in fact, be a link between winter severity and the brown band of a woolly bear caterpillar. “There’s evidence,” he says, “that the number of brown hairs has to do with the age of the caterpillar—in other words, how late it got going in the spring. The [band] does say something about a heavy winter or an early spring. The only thing is … it’s telling you about the previous year.”

Let's hope that the prediction is wrong,

All Lines Lead to Morgantown

Recently on Google Plus, I've been adopted by a group called the Landscape Photography Show. They periodically choose a theme and place a call for shot that fit the theme.   The most recent theme is Leading Lines.

Here's my submission:

We're required to provide a descriptive comment that discusses the challenges we've met.   Does that include waking up?

All lines lead to Morgantown. I've shot this scene a number of times over the years but this was the earliest time (6:50 a.m.) that I've managed. I guess I have to thank a raccoon in my kitchen at 4:00 a.m. for this. But we've got lines up the wazoo here: tree lines, water lines, receding pole lines, dock, fence rails, and the bridge spanning the river. All converge on Morgantown, W.Va. I didn't have my monopod, so I leaned against a fence post for support. ISO up to 400, lens all the way out to f/2.8, shutter at 1/8 sec. Thank goodness for the built-in image stabilization on my lens.

I also want to thank the raccoon for getting me out there early enough to finally catch the WVU Rowing Team at practice.     This has been my Rosebud.  Unfortunately, my Rosebud is a bit of a letdown.

I feel like the dog that finally caught the car.   No doubt about it, I need a better bucket list.