Active Socks & Happy New Year

I'm up with my family waiting for 2011 to roll around here in the U.S. mountain time zone, so I've got time to put up a quick blog post. Here are a few pictures of an active Socks for the Camera Critters meme. First he's getting ready to jump up to my lap, which is where he is while I'm typing this post.

Here he's in a playful mood on the floor.

And finally, this last shot was taken during our hike in Palmer Park this week. He's better at climbing up and down rocks than me.

I hope all my readers have a very happy New Year - all the best to you in 2011. Now it's time to get ready to toast with my family.

Cold & Warm, Partly Cloudy Skies

For this week's Skywatch Friday post, I'm uploading photos from two different mornings in the last week. The first two are from early on a frosty morning, after a 24-hour freezing fog finally lifted. This is frost, not snow, in both these photos!

The last shot is from this morning, when I went to Palmer Park to hike with little Socks. It was fairly warm, with skies that were partly sunny, making for flat, colorless light. I've got more photos to post from this hike.

We've got some really cold weather on the way - on Friday our high temperature may be 1° F(-17° C) - but luckily these cold spells are usually very short. Enjoy lots more skyward photographs at the Skywatch Friday meme.

Christmas Lights

This time of year, a lot of people put up Christmas lights on their houses. So, along with lots of other bloggers, I'm putting up some photos of Christmas lights in my part of town, taken yesterday evening. The first house belongs to my friend Bill, the other ones I don't know.

All these photos were taken hand-held, and I didn't edit them except to reduce the sizes to fit on to the blog. I'm sure you can find lots more holiday photos at the My World Tuesday site.

Yellowstone Dry Springs

Many of the hot springs at Yellowstone only flow intermittently, and here's what they look like when they're dry. The patterns made by the minerals are very interesting.

In places it can look like a moonscape. The shadows are me and my father.

Finally, here's an active hot spring near the Grand Prismatic Spring called Turquoise Pool.

I hope that all my readers who celebrate the holiday have a very merry Christmas. I'm not sure if the meme will be updated this weekend or not, but this post is for Scenic Sunday.

Curtain Clouds

Reaching back to July for this photo, here's an example of a curtain of rain falling out of a cloud, a not-uncommon sight here in the summer.

Please excuse the white dots, those are hot pixels in my camera and I can't do much about them. For more cloudy and clear skies, visit the Skywatch Friday meme today.

My Icy World

The weather here is extremely changeable, it can be absolutely frigid one day and gorgeous the next, and this weekend was a great example of that. Friday night we had a freezing fog all night, so I took these photos of the results once the sun came up Saturday morning.

By Sunday afternoon it was warm enough to take the dog for a walk in nothing more than jeans and a light sweatshirt. That's the nice thing about Colorado winters, despite the intermittent snow and cold, it's usually sunny and sometimes pleasantly warm. Because of our altitude, the sun has real warmth even in the depths of winter.

For other beautiful worlds, visit the My World Tuesday meme.

Ladybug, Ladybug, Where Are You?

Apparently they're on top of Mount Herman, where they were in swarms this summer!

On the way down I ran into this heading up - I don't remember what it was.

And those are my Camera Critters for this week!