So, this is the New Year (not impressed)

Well, not the New Year's I thought we might have, but we are still alive at least (for now). We thought Michigan was grey, windy and full of dread..... Leading up to the final day of 2018, it was quite cold and grey also in western New York (WNY), but we survived. We were able to catch a few "sunsets" but color was lacking, as known by those residing in upper attitudes during the winter. 

It's snowed a few times already, and even today/tonight it's snowed, though it seems to be little ice pellets, probably due to the high winds. Tonight the winds from the south could reach even up to 55 mph!! 

Street under the car turned white with the tiny ice pellets.
Any higher winds and we'd have golf balls instead!

Detailed snap of those ice pellets. A very nice crunchy
surface but just as slippery

We had decided to catch the double fireworks show on the final night of the old year, but cloudiness, combined with a late hour, together with a rainy chilling day in general dashed those plans. We can hear the fireworks going off even though we are just over six miles from the Falls (as the mad Hatter flies), and though it did go off on time, the midnight edition was MUCH shorter than it should have been, and I wondered if rain had a factor in making it so short-lived?

These past few days I have been going through my archives as I do every year-end, ready to close out the current main temporary storage before moving on to a new 2019 temporary spot for future image files. Considering the fireworks, I thought: what happens if we can't go to both (as happened) on the final day of the year? So, for an hour, I searched through almost all my fireworks image files for about the last two years, and made a "few" selected favorites, then readied my laptop to display on the much-bigger television flat-screen screen. As a result, we watched for about 20 minutes as my fireworks exploded upon the screen in various locations like San Francisco and various locations in WNY. 

We were both smiling, happy, warm and dry, and we didn't have to worry about the weather or the chilling temperatures outside. Plus, it was a fabulous fireworks show!!! 

Don't believe me? Look for yourself!
Click here to see First Friday 2019 fireworks over the Falls

Actually, the image link points to a picture that was taken a few days later. The winds had finally died down enough, plus no sign of rain. Actually, we were quite happy with the cool temps (in the low 20s) and lack of wind kept the cold from freezing our old bones. Here's a quick snapshot of some of the other images from that day of fire over the Falls. You can easily see the holiday decorations and trees. The tower is the Skylon Tower, which offers a fabulous view if we could ever save enough to get up into the tower for a few pictures of the view!

Click on this pix to see the image in its entirety 

Sheila and I also had a chance to see a Snowy Owl that is very close to where we live. Talking with others, it may even be one of the snowys that has been returning to the Falls area for some years now. We had the most amazing moments with this snowy, and got the most incredible images also (finally!).

These lovely birds have the most amazing eyes!

I wasn't ready for its jump, but seconds after this snap,
it flew about 15 feet right over me!!

You can view Sheila's fabulous snap of the same snowy at her foto website:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/what-was-that-sheila-lee.html


So, how was your year-end holidays?

Now, if only there were an available flight to Spain!! As of 12 January, there are none