Winter waterfall photos, as promised

post #326
       It may be winter on the calendar, but it is daffodil time in eastern Kentucky!  Today my niece is 40, and my friend, Molly, is 66 like the temperature outside at 2 pm. This weather is totally disorienting. Besides the daily dose of uncertainty from the White Lies House that I wrote about last week, our big unknown here is whether we will experience some real snow  -- the piled up kind -- before the end of March. Since the daffodils can take it, so can we.
       
       These photos from our waterfalls a week ago were made mostly using my tripod. The cloud cover along with the warm weather helped, too. No frozen fingers. No stressed batteries. No fear of rain. And no wind. Altogether perfect conditions. I lucked out, because last week the photo class assignment was to make photos of one's emotional connection to some kind of land -- to be printed as well by us students, 6 photos each, and shared in class this Tuesday during what's called a critique. In some ways I know less than most of the students, and in too many ways it's harder for me because of all the reliance that I'm not used to on the computer, but so be it. I am learning, albeit lurch by lurch, and that's what it's all about. The photos for today's post are just what I took in the field, however, thanks to my having those good conditions.
       Today, for this post, I'm sharing some of my favorites. It was so much fun for me to be down there two days in a row.  And I thank my daughter for bringing down my tripod both days and leaving me there for a couple of hours. Gifts.

creek flowing from the first waterfall toward the second

a trunk like an elephant, but not the elephant's trunk....

Even empty branches can be part of beauty in the woods.

The first waterfall, looking sparse, with no icicles!

   This next photo is looking back, before arriving at the second waterfall, with a view of the empty branch over the creek that plays a big role in the following photo, my favorite last week. I'm thankful to have made it, even if it took a class assignment to get me down there, when everything came together, even the weird warm weather.

:

 

 Question: Can you see this over-the-creek branch in the previous photo???

    I was so moved by making the last photo (sitting on a rock in the creek, knees as tripod) that I flopped back on the ground nearby and looked up -- and there was a whole other world. Such tall hemlocks, currently disappearing in general partly because of, yes, climate change. There they are for now, quietly part of the woods. How can I be silent when human beings put greed and shortsightedness ahead of the world we're thoughtlessly using up while walking around not paying attention.

using my nose as a tripod

       I hope that such treasures in this waterfalls area will survive the next four years, to say nothing of the next hundred. Today I've been sharing with you my dreams and hopes and what anchors those dreams and hopes.

over the second waterfall, headed toward the "big waterfall"