PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Nosey Dogs and Great Weather for Being Outside
4th week of January, 2024
This week brought us spring-like weather with highs reaching almost 60°F (15°C). Most of the snow and ice melted, but not as much as I’d expected (more on that adventure below). We had plenty of sunshine and some interesting clouds, but it looks like snow and cold weather are coming back, starting next month.
Monday’s photo features Charlie and Sunny. They were locked in the back yard, watching as I opened the garage door for a delivery of a 30-day supply of Dave’s dialysis solution.
Those poor dogs were left out, trying to see what was going on, and wondering why they weren’t allowed to get attention from the “visitors” (aka delivery drivers).
I took a walk through the park on Tuesday morning before work. I was out much longer than I’d planned because the morning fog over the lake was beautiful and I kept stopping for more pictures. Those deserve their own post, coming soon, but for now, here is a photo of a small pond.
The rising sun had already started lifting the fog away from the lake by the time I’d started walking back towards my car.
My walk on Wednesday was shorter than normal because I had some foot pain. It went away after a while, but I didn’t want to push it. I took one loop around the neighborhood, then added a loop through our local park to make my walk a little longer.
The sunset wasn’t spectacular like it sometimes is when we have clouds, but I liked the muted pink and purple colors. Last year, when I walked around the same park, I was wading through a foot of snow and it wasn’t all that fun.
The weather on Thursday was beautiful. It felt like spring. I was thinking, There’s no way this is January. Instead of my usual walk around the neighborhood, I decided to hike one of my favorite trails in the area.
The trail was great, until I reached the north-facing slope. What looked like snow on the trail was solid ice. I fell at least twice, then tried walking off to the side of the trail in the softer snow, but it wasn’t working. The uphill side was too steep and the downhill side didn’t have a “shoulder” to walk on. I briefly debated sitting down and ‘sliding’ to the bottom, but I decided against that. I also decided against sitting down and waiting for spring to arrive, so I had to keep going.
I thought, This trail sucks, even though I was laughing as I struggled and fell off and on. The trail remained icy until I reached the other side of the creek and got back out into the sunlight. There were two other people, a young couple, also sliding around, falling on the ice. We laughed, talked for a minute, then I kept going. I was ready to be home.
I met up with Ann again on Friday. We hiked an area called Prison Hill and we ended up hiking just over two miles. As we hiked, we shared topics we’ve written about on this platform. We also talked about some of the writers we follow, and I described this Photo-a-Day Challenge.
Washoe Valley, where I work, is known for its wind. Even Mark Twain wrote about the wind in his book Roughing It. Saturday afternoon was very calm, and I was able to get this photograph of the mountains reflected in a pond on the north end of the valley.
Lake Tahoe is just on the other side of those mountains.
I didn’t get to take my daily walk until after sunset on Sunday night. I had to take this photo of an airplane leaving the Reno airport, with the plane’s bright light reflecting off the lake. A minute later, the plane turned east and the light was gone.
This was my week in photographs! Dennett started this Photo-a-Day Challenge during the summer of 2020. Since then, many others have joined, including Anne Bonfert, Erika Burkhalter, Susan Alison, Barbara Radisavljevic, Barb Dalton, Ellie Jacobson, K. Barrett, Sandra B, Penny Grubb, Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, Mia Verita, Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms), and more.