Monday, February 14, 2011

A Sunday Drive

Sunday, we went for a drive along the backroads.  What can I say about that?  There was a lot of snow, and it was pretty, in a snowy sort of way.  And rife with bucolic, albeit snow-drifted, charm.



My chauffeur was very patient and obliging, stopping or backing up the car
so I could capture pictures to drag home to the blog.



His willing (and rare) acquiesence gave me an odd sense of power,
almost as if I was casting a long shadow...



or having a religious experience.



I wonder if seeing a double barn is deemed as lucky as seeing a double rainbow? 
We also wondered if there could be such a thing as a snowbow,
when it's sunny and snowing at the same time. 
(We are nothing if not deep;
as deep as the daily driven snow.)



Is this not a quintessentially Canadian photo?!

If I said there was
a bottle of maple syrup,
a case of beer,
 a package of back bacon,
and a woolly toque
 inside, would that convince you?

I still have several more pictures to post from our Sunday backroads excursion,
but I wouldn't want you to go snow blind so I'll save them for another day. 

Why don't you don the toque,
grab the syrup, beer and bacon
and follow us home for pancakes.  
They're another of Pierre's specialties, and if you're really lucky,
maybe there'll be some fresh-baked beans in the oven as well. 

25 comments:

  1. I so love the little red building in that first photo...the strong red in a sea of white. I also love the silhouette of shadow on snow. Lovely images and a rather wonderful posting altogether. Hope that you both enjoy the romantic day.

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  2. wow and the snow goes on and on....beautiful pictures - that second one particularly is so sublime - you should submit it to Shadow Shot Sunday this week!!

    I reckon seeing a double barn is super lucky!!

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  3. Nice to see scenes of the old 'hood. Residing in Albert County is like living with a charming but very eccentric person. Much of the time it's fun and pleasurable but on occasion one asks, "Can I do this every day forever?"

    WV - welya - Welya may ask . . .

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  4. The first photo - Lynne, it's perfect!

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  5. I agree with the others - love the first photo. But I am also somewhat enamored with the field of snow. Great texture.

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  6. Wow--that little red house really pops! Gorgeous gorgeous shot. The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards is having a "Beauty Around Us Contest." This looks like a contender...

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  7. Patricia,
    I had actually got out of the car to get a picture of something else but Pierre suggested I might care to look behind as well, and there was the red house shining in the late afternoon sun. Opportunity sometimes shines through a rear-view mirror.

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  8. Catherine,
    Indeed,the snow does go on and on...and on. Maybe I will join in the Shadowy fun this Sunday. Thanks for the suggestion.

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  9. DCW,
    You certainly hit the bent nail of a pithy question right smack dab on its rusty little Albert Countian head! Well you may ask.

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  10. Driftwood,
    Thank you! I think it has more to do with the subject matter than the photograph, but I did my best to bring up the accents (Albert County accent, in particular).

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  11. Audrey,
    Thanks for parachuting in and leaving your comment on these snow-covered hills! I could hardly believe the extent of that sea of snow, myself. In summer its a field filled with langorous cows.

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  12. jann,
    Thanks so much! I would hardly dare to present such a humble offering to a worldwide gala of photographs, though it is nice to think I coulda been a contendah. It was really quite stunning how that distant red house captured the sun.

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  13. no matter how striking the little red house is, my favourite is the blue shadow picture, of course of course! not only because i love snow shadows, as i have already confessed :-) but this composition is simply breathtaking, the purity of the horizon, the wonderful white and blue, the mysterious and vague human presence, the play of lines and angles... it is one of my favourite from your photos, dear Lynne, and my words are too pale to really express what i feel...

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  14. Roxana,
    I did think of you while taking that long shadow shot, remembering your love of such on snow...probably even inspired by that very comment you'd left on my blog's doorstep. That vast sea of white, barely delineated by a distant rim of hills, was quite spectacular to behold. It almost seemed as if I was in the Arctic, casting an Inuit-shaped (ie. clad in sealskin parka) shadow.

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  15. I like the metaphorical way you string the photos together with the tale that muses and wonders... the power of a long shadow, the double barn/double rainbow, the religious experiene... a lovely story which all fits together with a delicious homecoming at the end! Beautiful! Love, me ♥

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  16. Margaret,
    How lovely that you took my words to heart. Devising a tale that strings the photos together is, I find, the hardest part of the whole enterprise of blogging.

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  17. How brave of you to be out and about, capturing the heartlands for us to oggle!Love that first one, that splash of red barn took my breath away (just as well too, garlicky as it was). Have left a pint of drink out for you at my place...but if you're too snowed under to get there, I'll drink it for you. Ok?

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  18. Saj,
    Well I guess you'd have to love the red house on account of it's being red'n'all! "Too snowed under" is a relative term...When the reward involves a pint of happy juice, snow mountains are suddenly perceived as snowhills. I'll just don the snowshoes and shuffle right over!

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  19. The artic wastes ! The arctic wastes...

    Similar to old Joe Conrad's exclamation at the end of the Heart of Darkness... but at the other end of the temperature spectrum.

    My favorite of course, as you can well imagine, is the barn, or the soon to be ex-barn... is it just me, or is it on the verge of collapsing ? The snow on the roof has overcome whatever remaining will or desire to remain standing it may have had, now it is ready to lay down, with a great cloud of swirling snow, for a long and well deserved rest. Yes indeedy, that's the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it... (don't let that song get into your head ! It could take years to get it back out !)

    I like the mailbox too, despite the nationalist message, I always did like the Canadian flag. Celebrating a leaf.

    But what I really think is needed to help wash down all those good things to eat is another Canadian specialty, which I was lucky to find in the Toronto airport once, a few years back, which is to say... Ice Wine !

    As for the baked beans, my goodness, I think I'll head for New Zealand, I wouldn't want to be around there when all the wind starts to kick up clouds of snow ! More blizzards coming, out of a clear blue sky !
    :-)

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  20. And gosh, that red house is so intensely red, it looks like it's about to spontaneously combust ! Talk about "fire-engine red"...

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  21. O^O
    wen,

    You are right about the barn. In fact, I've noticed a few barns in the area that have given up the ghost under the weight of vast snow accumulation this winter. I know just how they feel.

    Canadians celebrating and saluting and singing to a leaf: we are nothing if not quaint.

    I once experienced ice wine and, quite frankly, regretted having left my lace handkerchief at home as I had nothing in which to politely cough up the offending mouthful.

    You were, indeed, quite right about the song. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

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  22. PS. Owen,
    Spontaneous combustion is one of my all-time favourite subjects of interest.

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  23. "My chauffeur was very patient and obliging, stopping or backing up the car
    so I could capture pictures to drag home to the blog."

    *BIGsmile*

    There is something to marvel about each and every image!

    Thank you, thank you for these images,
    and thank you to the chauffeur for indulging you,
    these images were well worth dragging home, priceless!

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  24. I am still wondering how you took that first picture, with the red house. Did you throw yourself down on the street and shoot? Or did you have a magic zoom?

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  25. Merisi,
    I will pass on your gratitude to my chauffeur after enjoying a big slice of it for myself.
    :-D
    As for the red house, I did not throw myself down on the road (there is a limit to what I'm willing to do for my blog) but made use of the 12x zoom (well, some of it, not to the max) on my little camera. And then, I must admit, I emphasized the photo's contrasts with a few Photoshop enhancements (I do not pretend to be a photographer, so I feel free to cheat!) when I got home. I hope you will not like the picture less, now that you know of my devious ways.
    :-)

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