Housesitting perks.

House sparrow, Strathcona:

Sunning on a wire.

Hungry youngsters in the alley.

On a tiled roof; these gaps are often filled with nests, old and new.

And a bonus; a hungry young crow.

"Feed me, mommy!"

.

Red snow, brown snow, blue birds.

I'm in Strathcona again, house- and cat-sitting. I arrived well after dark, but once I had settled in, I went out for a walk with the camera anyhow.

The camera does odd things, sometimes. This window had a red curtain, surrounded by deep red lights. The camera, on half a dozen shots, insisted on rendering the lights as white, the snow as red.

I had the camera set to "Available light", hand-held, which meant holding perfectly still for several seconds for each shot. Not easy, when you're shivering.

A little bare tree decorated with blue lights becomes a "V", with the quotation marks and all.

Or a flight of blue birds.

Other decorations, farther away, become check marks on the night.

MacLean Park, under trampled snow. The streetlights give a brown tinge to all the whites.

Lonely bench.

Telephone pole, with the remains of a local history in signs.

I had to use the flash on this one; there was no streetlight directly on it. Arnt Arntzen's "steel macaroni", again. With a light snow dressing, for flavour.

Anyone want a desk? With a nice screen? Freebie on the sidewalk.

And I'd had enough; my teeth were chattering. I came home to Sasha.


"It's about time!" she says.

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