very effective image Kathryn, It conveys the feeling of winter as you so obviously intended, nice work

Kathryn: Nice to know my that my intention and emotion was conveyed, dai. Thanks for letting me know.

...and then,
winter becomes just a memory;
a blurred impression at the back of our mind,
as Spring sweeps in and and we smile again.

Kathryn: a blurred impression in the back of our minds...I like that line. I have so many blurred memories that sweep in and make me smile again. Don't you?

A picture requires a frame, to give it boundaries?
I think not.
The frame is but a visual shortcut.

Kathryn: Perhaps ray, but the depths of the winter seems endless when you are there.

How is the progress on fixing your site? I miss your images.

Let spring come

Kathryn: All things in their time.

It's a beautiful image...

Kathryn: Thank you so much. I imagine you know the depths of winter well in Canada.

Good effects.

Kathryn: Umm I did not use any effects on this image, other than the blue tint. Or did you mean the image had a good effect on you?

Thanks for looking.

..the tears of joy would not be sweet
without salty tears of sorrow…

Kathryn: is there a time when the tears of joy are salty and the tears of sorrow sweet?

looks like a painting

Kathryn: Thanks for taking the time to look and stopping in, alicia lee. I wonder what about my photograph makes it look like a painting and even more, I wonder what the photograph made you feel or even if it made you feel anything.

They say if March comes in as a lion, it leaves as a lamb. I'm happy to report a snowstorm last evening and overnight though at 330 am it seems to be over.

I love this aqua/blue world.

Kathryn: Mary, we have had since Friday night, we have had one of the windiest storms I've ever been in. No snow, that constant rain, hail, and WIND. It is roaring here too.

Thank you.

I agree with Alicia. It looks like a nice abstract painting which leaves everyone's imagination wander!

Kathryn: To where did your mind wander, I wonder, Richard. Thanks for taking the time to look and leave a comment.

Stunning image, Kathryn. (:o)

Kathryn: Thanks, Roz!

It is the utmost simplicity of this that I like so much - two lines and a blurry tree - that's enough for me. It evokes some far off distant dream - as though I am trying to reach out for something through the fog of distant memories.
Ingrid

Kathryn: Ingrid, I love the vision of spring as trying to reach out for through the fog of distance memories. Beautiful, very beautiful!

I'd never would have believed that this was a photograph; in my mind, I see someone stood at an easel painting this. Superbly done!

So you still have winter? I'm still waiting for ours to come!

Kathryn: Alan, thank you so much for your comment. I am delighted that you like this image so much.

Oh yes, it is cold and gray, with bouts of hail and snow. Care to trade?

Is this another classic Kathryn from the car shot?

Kathryn: From one who shoots from moving objects to another ;-)

I wonder why people think that comparing a photograph to a painting they make a compliment. What a bizarre idea.

Kathryn: VZ, I have the same feeling about it as I think in many ways it devalues of the this type of photography as an art form unto itself and the skill it takes to create an photographs like this or even better examples would be the beautiful one's Mal and Petra consistently grace us with and yours too.

When people tell me that my photograph reminds them of a painting, I take it as a compliment, but I think the compliment is grounded in preconceived notions of what photography is or should be and what painting is or should be. Maybe if we keep producing photographs that reach people on a deep emotional levels and also are aesthetic, we can change those preconceptions

Wow, Kathryn. This is wonderful. I love the soft colors. Very nice effect.

Kathryn: Thanks, Kay.

It looks like a piece of abstract art. Love this.

Kathryn: Helen, if it looks like a piece of abstract art, then perhaps it is

So nice of you to come to my blog and leave such an lovely comment.

Look really wind swept,just like I was on my walk today.
Nice idea and the Ode is very apt

Kathryn: Wind swept --i could have easily called this wind swept, Tracy! But then I would have to have write an Ode to Windswept...ah, now there is an idea!

I likethe swirling feeling in this one, like blown snow or the patterns of ice on a window pane.

Kathryn: Nice to know you like it. You are not so far off in the feelings that you get from this one. It was taken through a window, Ian.

These are the colours of the winter: white (often dirty white, sometimes bright white...)- gray (icy gray, misty gray,rainy gray...) - blue ( icy blue, steel blue...), often in a diffused mixture, and on very icy, frosty days all things are frozen,as if turned to stone ( wie erstarrt), almost no movement, only your breath is flying away from mouth and nose like a smoke trail.
My impression, inspired by your poetic words, 'Ode to Winter', is that you would like to express these moments of icy numbness although there are some symptoms of movement, but no animal, no seagull, no human life..., a vision of absolute emptiness. I especially like the fine smoke-cloud -as a symptom of beginning of life- towering into the icy sky! I can detect or imagine 'behind' the sky and the 'waters' quite more 'things' if I'm looking for a longer time at this winter-pic! Fascinating!

Because you are interested in poems, I like to add these winter-verses of Hölderlin (Midlife/Hälfte des Lebens):
Woe me: whence do I fetch, when
it's winter, the flowers,
and whence
the sunshine
and shade of the earth?
The walls stand
speechless and cold; in the wind
are clanking the banners.

Weh mir, wo nehm ich, wenn
Es Winter ist, die Blumen,
und wo
Den Sonnenschein,
Und Schatten der Erde?
Die Mauern stehn
Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde
Klirren die Fahnen.

Kathryn: Philine, you write so well in English with such description and feeling. Your first paragraph transported me to my own experience of standing in an icy field in the middle of the night with a friend about 8 years ago, looking at the colors of winter, the world turned to stone, and the only sign of life was our breath, and spring was the warmth I found snugging myself inside my friends huge coat.

Yes in the poem, absolute emptiness, but I really wanted to express that without the absolutely emptiness that we feel at times, "Spring", would not be as sweet. If it were always Spring, we'd never pine for it--dream of it--.

I am reading this poem over and over and thinking about it. Very powerful.."the wall" Could it be that the wall to which Hölderlin refers, is the wall inside himself?

Each season has its' beauty. This picture could be retaken to convey each one in an uncluttered simplicity. Now there is a challenge for you. Your poem is very good too

Kathryn: Bill, yes and without each, we would not appreciate each so much. Image life as constant spring, no lows or highs.

I am going to mull over your challenge because it appeals to me so much.

Nice to know you like my poem.

Kathryn this is wonderful! I've likeyed it! (I do that very rarely). The coours are wonderful and it looks almost painting-like. Beautiful fine-art style photography. Just lovely! Thank you very much for sharing.

Kathryn: Iain, ice to know that you like my photograph so much and I am honored to join the ranks of your likeys. I do hope you will go back from time to time and look at this image and when you do, email me to tell me if it evokes the same feelings in you.

Love Mary's quote.
Lovely blue tint. Reminds me of strong cold winds that chill the bones.

Kathryn: Aussie, thank you so much--sorry I chilled your bones, but perhaps my next photograph will warm them

I think this is a very suitable image to go with your lovely poem, kathryn.

Kathryn: Thank you so much, Chad. The poem actually sort of inspired the image as it is.

~ flowers leave, colours leave, warmth leaves, we come closer. then, winter leaves ~

Kathryn: us closer...

This is like the half-awake, half-asleep part of one's mind, when dreams are drifting away. You can't quite get a grip on them to pull them back - you just know they were beautifully haunting...

Kathryn: what a beautiful was to describe the feeling of dreaming...the feeling of knowing something just is, but not knowing the something,

"If not for [Death]...the fragile wordless whisper of [Life] would be empty."

The Wind is Sophia, God's Wisdom, God's Breath. It is blowing through me as we speak.

Kathryn: Ginnie, you took my message and made it your own. Beautiful.

really really clever and imaginative Kathryn you are tops when it comes to this sort of image, tried it and failed miserably,

Kathryn: thanks so much, Tim. I try.

I don't think there is such a thing as salty tears of joy, as well as sweetest tears of sorrow.
You can appreciate in full the sweetest kiss of spring only, when you survived the salty bites of winter.

A chocolate tastes always better not after sugary desert.

Kathryn: The tears of sorrow are as sweet the tears of joy. They both flow from the same fountain--love. Without love, one would know neither joy or sorrow. for me it is not so much about one or the other, it is about how they are interconnected and how they define each other.

The chocolate tastes better because of the sugary dessert.

wonderfully impressionistic...

Kathryn: thank you, Sam!

I doff my virtual cap! mal