Where analytic and creative thought collide and all kinds of weird stuff can happen.

One of the things I like most about participating in memes and other blog challenges is meeting new people and discovering new things. The You Capture photography meme is what led me to some of my now-favorite bloggie friends.

You know I like photography, right? I don’t mean just taking pictures. I mean looking at other people’s work, too. Vacation pictures, family pictures, artsy pictures, whatever. Maybe I’m just nosy? Anyway, one of the coolest things about You Capture is getting to see some amazing stuff. Snippets of people’s lives. Views of how other people see the world.

I just think it’s neat. That’s how I found the goat.

That shot made me chortle. (Now, there’s an underused word for you.) I just HAD to share it.

Bonnie Blackboer (from Eden Hill's Blog)

Here are some other entries I really liked this week:

• From Still Life – Fiber and Photos, some beautiful flower pictures. The second shot is my favorite.
• The lady at Coneflower Ranch experimented with something called painting with light. I just LOVE the third shot with the bottles. That is definitely a technique I’ll have to explore.
• And I really dig this Batman and Robin shot (scroll down when you get to Naptime Notes).
• Who would have ever thunk bubbly fruit could be so awesome? Look what Chic Homeschool Mama did with it.
• The lady from Girasole Farm captured a riveting barbed wire shot and a pretty flower, too.
• How could I not love the lady at Gone Walkabout 2, who packed home 53 pounds of rocks from a vacation to Scotland? (Have I ever told you about my rocks?)
• There was even a graphic sax image from Awesomeville (those crazy Brits).
• And I really enjoyed visiting the snowy forest with Who is Tiffany?
• There’s a cool stack of buttons and other great work at Fluffy Bunnies, too.
• How can I forget Beth, who hosts You Capture? She really knows how to harness light.

Anyone can participate in You Capture. Whether you have a fancy camera or not.

It’s fun.

I discovered something else indirectly through You Capture. You know how that goes, following a link to a link to a link.

Despair, Inc., the company responsible for images, as seen below, which have been appearing on Facebook quite a bit lately.

Their collection of demotivational images is perfect for people like me who get so sick and tired of seeing all the sugary, happy-happy-joy-joy stuff people come up with.

This snippet is from their website…

At Despair, Inc., we believe it’s time people face the truth- that any kind of motivation you can buy isn’t worth owning, and in the end will produce even greater demoralization. Given that inevitable fact, we’d like to invite you to skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointment that follows!

Here’s another one…

It isn’t just the sarcasm that gets me with these images. It’s the shiny-on-the-surface, what you see is not what you get aspect of it. There’s been so much of this motivational crap plastered about, who really takes time to read the small print?

Maybe these images will make folks stop to take a closer look at things again.

That and, I just think they are funny.

Another week has gone by and I didn’t get out on any good photo expeditions. Sigh…

The theme for this week’s You Capture is COLORFUL.

I could have just walked around my house and taken pictures of stuff. Like the big bag of plain, dark-chocolate M&Ms. Before I ate them. Or crayons. If I had some crayons.

But I didn’t. That would just be boring.

One day soon I’ll be able to share pics of my colorful new office. But that’s another blog post…

I did capture a couple of cool images worthy of sharing in this week’s challenge. Both actually feature store windows here in town. I added some texture to both images because I just felt like being different.

That first image captures a large painting in one of several of Warrenton’s cool art galleries. Some people may have tried to capture the shot without the reflections. But I like the reflections. I think they frame the image nicely. Especially the tree in the upper left-hand corner.

The love shot, which is certainly colorful, is from the window of the ceramics store.

Our love affair with this town continues…

To see what other folks captured this week, pop on over to Beth’s blog to peruse the work of the many good photographers who participated.

Mother Nature has been teasing us. All winter. If you can call it winter. We’ve hardly had any really cold days, much less measurable frozen precipitation. Of course, those two things are pretty closely related.

Friday night into Saturday, we had a winter weather event. First it snowed. Not much, unfortunately. Then it rained. And it was cold enough that the rain became freezing rain. Which left a densely compacted layer of ice.

Yes, ice.

Yuck.

Snow, I love. Ice? It’s no fun. Just ask my dogs who missed out on both of their walks yesterday and one walk already today. Things are just too slippery.

They’d be fine, of course. It’s me I’m worried about.

Here are some shots of our world, which I took yesterday morning.

The Front Porch

Icy Bush

Our Sidewalk

Another Icy Bush

Clean Street, Icy Sidewalks

Cold Man

Cold, Surprised Lion

This shot is my favorite. I love the expression on the lion’s face. It looks to me like he is saying, “Help! I’m frozen and I can’t get up!”

Warrenton Courthouse

Now THAT Looks Cold

Icy Sidewalk

Accumulated Ice

Icebergs?

Look at the roof of that car to get a better idea of the thickness of the ice.

Frozen Greens

South Sixth Street

Our Driveway

It’s a good thing the streets got plowed. Otherwise, they would have looked like our driveway and I wouldn’t have gone anywhere yesterday.

It’s still cold today, so not much has melted. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to warm up. They say February will be our month for snow. Will we have another Birthday Blizzard maybe? That would be awesome. NOTE: If you follow the Birthday Blizzard link, you should watch the video. It’s one of my all-time favorites.

Then, if you are really bored, you can look at my large collection of pictures from that snow event.