yes yes yes

[OT from cottage renovations]

the first croci are out. 
I had a report yesterday and this afternoon looked and saw some in Jackson Park's crocus meadow.  there wasn't any light, so no images.  yet. 

no light

[OT from cottage renovations]

the personal significance of the phrase "no light" is that it was the Wonder Boy's first words, uttered many years ago.  when they're little you'd think they'll never stop talking, but in the late 'teens and early 20s the challenge is to get them to say anything at all. 

O.K., enough with the maundering. 
time to get on with today's images, taken with very little light. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Bittersweet Cottage garden

during the warmer first phase of winter this butterfly bush out front had put forth some early foliage which isn't in all that bad shape, considering. 

buddleja

the more recent temperatures don't seem to have caused any great harm.  it's seen here this afternoon against some of the last bits of the snow, which this evening's rain should help clear away. 

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Parsonage grounds

there wasn't much in the way of light left when I stepped out, and the arrival of heavily laden rain clouds did nothing to lighten the sky. 

shadowy

this image, so dark and creepily ominous, contains so little colour that toggling between greyscale and colour mode in PS has no effect.  it is fortunate that my mood has been better than this image might suggest. 

getting tagged

[OT from cottage renovations]

though I am sure there was any number of other things I should have been doing, I went through and used the LJ tag function for Grove locations illustrated in this journal (I had been using the generic grovescape tag but at 161 -- and counting -- it has exceeded LJ's index limit of 100 entries per tag). 

( the Grove is a small place but there are 51 location tags )