Rust, Fungus, Snow

Here is another picture of rusty things on the Sykesville tracks:

And a picture of a fungus down the tracks a bit that has interestingly similar colors and texture.

And just for fun here are a couple of pictures of today's weather conditions. This one is from about noon, when the wind was just starting to pick up, but I could still capture snowflakes:

This is just a few minutes ago. The 35-50mph winds make the snow a gray haze in photos:

They just extended the blizzard warning to 10pm and no one is allowed on Baltimore City roads except emergency vehicles. I managed to shed my stir-craziness yesterday, but Jay is suffering from it today. He just went outside claiming he's upholding the family tradition of going out in nasty weather to shovel. Hope you're proud, Thompsons!

Why Hello, Rusty!

(It takes a couple of blizzards to get me to be consistent with this blog, apparently.)

Back when the land was less white and we were enjoying an unseasonably warm spell instead of the blizzard-filled one of the moment, Jay and I went to the country and visited the little town of Sykesville. Most of our time there was spent walking the pair of railroad tracks that run through the town, one old, one new and shiny (read: still used). There was a bit of a trainyard, of sorts, and we found an old blue caboose, sitting, rusting, posing.

Pointless Digression: There is a breed of photographers that cannot resist photographing the dying, decrepit, tumbling apart, and abandoned things of the world. There were many of these photogs at my school, GVSU, which led to a personal resentment of old barns and rusted things. I really cant blame them- in the farmland of Western Michigan those were the marked things in the landscape. I understand the psychology of it too- photography is tightly connected to documentation and when something is so obviously headed toward disintegration, there is an urge to record proof that it was there. I just saw too much of it for awhile. Obviously, I'm not of this documentor breed, though I appreciate the beauty that often comes from slow destruction, hence the following. Digression end.

So, the caboose was posing there for me in all its rusty beauty, with an overcast sky that allowed for capturing all the colors and textures it had to offer. Enjoy:

Well, Maryland has given up and as the snow begins to fall again, schools are reporting they'll be closing for the rest of the week. I'm guessing I'll get at least one more day at home, myself, so I hope to post up some more rusty stuff from Sykesville tomorrow.

Snowy Friends

Early last week I was shocked to look out our bathroom window (our favorite spot in the apartment to assess the goings on outside) to see a hundred or more robins in the surrounding trees. I know robins as fairly solitary birds, or at least never in groups this large, so it was a sight to see. They visited us every afternoon for the week. On Friday evening we were watching them out the window again and I warned them they ought to move out of town since Snowmeggedon was at hand. They didn't listen. On Saturday, once the snow stopped falling they came back around and visited once again and I snapped a few photos:

According to Bird Watcher's Digest, robins won't stick around in the winter if their berries and fruits are iced over, which happened to much of the local supply after the storm. I'm glad I got the pictures when I did, because that was the last we saw of them.

Snowpocalypse!!

We survived Snowpocalypse 2010! Friday and Saturday dumped 30 inches of snow on us here in Baltimore, bringing the city, the state, the whole region, really, to a standstill. Jay and I explored the white-drenched neighborhood for a bit on Saturday after it finally quit and I took a few pictures until my fingers got too cold. I apparently don't have gloves appropriate for long-term out-of-doorsing in sub-freezing temps.

After spending a good time shoveling the walk (2 hours?) we ventured out for a walk:

Jay is swooning from all the snow!

Oh wait, he's okay.

They hadn't plowed much, one track down Guilford sometime mid-storm so one car at a time could go down. As of this posting Sunday afternoon, they have yet to touch 32nd street.
From the intersection where our apartment is looking south:

and west:

and north:

and east (note the lack of plowing):

The tree is threatening the car behind Jay's more than his, but still scary.
Here's my poor car:

This is St. Paul, the "main street" of Charles Village, therefore partially plowed:

Many more pedestrians on the road than people, though. There wasn't much of anywhere for people to drive to, just about everything in the city was closed.

At Wyman Park nearby, a crowd had gathered at the top of a steep hill to sled on whatever they had around. I saw a couple of legitimate sleds, but also cardboard, innertubes, garbage can lids, even a plastic under-the-bed type bin. That one didn't go so well and was in pieces halfway down the hill. Ah, college kids...

Not much has changed around the immediate area in the 24 hours since I took these pictures except for some people cleaning off their cars and a few managing to get out on the road (if they are parked on Guilford). We will head to the pub this evening to watch the Superbowl and get out of the house for a bit (wouldn't want to go stir crazy). And we will continue our mid-western judgment of Baltimore's snow removal inadequacies (we're not sure how Jay's going to get his car out to go to work tomorrow if they haven't plowed 32nd). And we'll try and get to the grocery store sometime between being able to get our cars out and before the next snowfall that's supposed to come, oh, this Tuesday...

Update: Monday night, 9:00. 32nd still not plowed. forecast for Tuesday - Wednesday storm: 16-22".

Eastern Shore Three

I had some commentary with the above photos which was inane and distracting rather than helpful or interesting, so I did you a favor and deleted it all. Now you can enjoy these in peace.