Cardinal

There are at least three couples of cardinals that have been eating at the feeders lately, and i'm always impressed with their colors. Along with the blue jays that come, they are the most colorful, although the female cardinals are a more muted color, with more browns and grays. Sadly i don't seem to have the camera ready when they are all there, or i just miss them. 

Infrared Street view

This is a shot out of my front upstairs window, with my new correct sized infrared filter. It seems to be a slightly different color but also seems to get the effect of the trees better. That could also be since it's very sunny and clear out, but still kind of cold at 10F (-12C) with a wind chill of -2F (-19C), so it's almost tropical after the last few days. ;) Hard to tell how much snow has fallen too, but there was quite a bit of it the other night and it made for slick roads. 

Same area facing south

This is an infrared view from the road where i took the last photo, but facing south. There is a school to the right, and this is a large open area where people play sports and such. Not much use during winter other than walking through and snowmobiles. 

I'm missing that 40 degree weather the other day. It rained yesterday morning when the temperature was still in the high 30s and then dropped to about zero during the day. Then it snowed. Now it's -4F (-20C) with a wind chill of around -23F (-31C) and the roads are ice covered with snow on top of that. Almost all schools are closed from what it looks like and the roads are slick. Except for the roads, this is the weather that looks like the rest of the week is going to be this cold. 

Hoffman park

This is actually my first attempt at infrared digital photography, on my un-modified camera with a filter that doesn't actually quite fit the lens. I'm not sure if i'm doing it exactly right, but i took this as the sun was going down and it was pretty overcast. Hoffman Park is on the north east side of town, and as you can see here, covered in snow. I was kind of surprised saturday got near 40F, but a blizzard with freezing rain is predicted, so i should enjoy it while it lasts. 

Library entrance

This is the entrance to the local library, i had planned on taking pictures inside, but it was closed. Kind of surprised it was closed for "Cleaning and inventory" on a Friday afternoon. I counted at least ten people go up to the door and notice it was closed in the few minutes it took me to take this picture. This was taken with a fish eye lens, the pillars are all straight. 

South Pointe

This is South Pointe, from what i gather it's a senior living place. I first noticed it after not driving south of town for a while and it's pretty massive. There are buildings behind this building. Located almost right on the city limits south of town. 

River Falls Academy

This is what i believe to be the River Falls Academy, i'm not too sure what goes on in there, but i've always been impressed with the building. This was taken today, which has started out sunny and clear, but now is working on being overcast. Still pretty cold though, 12F (-11C), but seeing as how i know it will be colder later on, this isn't too bad when the sun is out. I'd talk more about the school, but honestly i know very little, the web site probably has more than i know and can say. 

Upside down

This guy was eating like this as the other one was eating below. Normally they fight when they see each other, but this time they were sharing nicely. 

Snowy face

One of the many squirrels that get food from the feeders. This one was rooting under the snow, which there was plenty of after the last storm, some places got a half a foot. I had other pictures that i was wanting to use, but i wasn't thinking and they were all over exposed and not good looking. 

Geese

This is a shot of several Canadian geese (at least i think so) downtown in the river at the same time as the construction pictures. There is probably a lot more snow now there, but i think they are still hanging out there like they seem to enjoy doing. 

TtV Snow

Oh look, more snow. ;) I'm having a feeling this winter is going to have a lot of snow and be pretty cold, even though it took a while to get going. It seems to start out slowly up here, and then around January or February really take off with cold and snow. We already have somewhere around a half a foot or so on the ground. This photo is one of those Through the Viewfinder ones i've been playing with. 

More snow

Here is another picture of snow, as it was snowing when i got back from the dentist (root canal second part if you were wonderng). This wasn't as long as the other day, but the flakes were much bigger and fell slowly. You can even see a lot of them in this photo out onto my deck if you enbiggen the image. I also didn't notice the squirrel on the leftmost feeder until i looked closer. 

Big snow

Yesterday we had a big snow, not sure how deep, but this was taken as it was still falling. Ignore the reflections in the window, i didn't see them when i was taking this but i liked how it looked otherwise.

Best Western downtown

This is the new hotel being built downtown across from Kwik Trip, from what i hear it's going to be a Best Western. It seems like ages since they started this, but that could be because it causes a little traffic snarl. Seems like a good choice location for a hotel (or motel, not sure there) since it's also right across the street from the local university. The other ones i know of are closer to the north side of town about two miles or so from here. 

New City Hall

From what i'm told, this is the new city hall being built. This was actually taken a little while ago today, so if you compare it to the earlier picture of the same construction a bit down the blog, you can see they are zooming right along. Faster than the Best Western also downtown it seems, but i know very little about what goes into building something like this.