There is a place about 20 minutes drive from us, with a beautiful little waterfall deep in the woods. To get to it you have to trek through the forest down a path and then climb down a steep bank to get the best view. We have been there in the winter when the ice was beautifully built up over the falls, with the water cascading down underneath.

This was what I hoped to get when I drove there, got my snowshoes on and started off in the direction of the waterfall. With the bitter cold weather we had had, I knew the falls would be frozen. The path was full of footprints, but none belonging to a human being. Coyotes? Maybe. Deer? Probably. Raccoon and other wildlife, certainly. But no people. And I was out of cell phone range. And alone. And it was getting late. I was determined to get the photograph, so kept going, knowing my footprints would lead me back to the car if I got lost in the dense fores where the trees were bowed low with the heavy burden of snow on evergreen branches. Or if I failed to go home and a search party came looking for me they could use those footprints… hopefully. After I had gone into the woods for a distance I was able to follow the sound of the water.

I got to the top of the falls and saw this. Frozen solid. I could hear the water … but not see any. I didn't dare try to make it down the steep snow covered slope/cliff to the bottom to see if there was a better vantage point, as I suspected getting up would be much slower (especially if I fell) and possibly very difficult and if I hurt myself I could have been lying there for some time before anyone came to look for me. Call me a coward.

So this is the photograph I took. Disappointing. But c'est la vie. You can't always get what you want.

Note to self: Make sure you get to this spot by noon, or even a bit before when the sun is low in the winter, as it is in such a dip and so deep in the woods that no light will penetrate much after that. 

#365project +G+ 365 Project  curated by the hardworking +Simon Davis-Oakley  and +Patricia dos Santos Paton 

I have been giving a lot of thought to how I want to work with this project. One photograph a day for the whole year. For the past three days I had got myself into a bit of a knot, wanting each day to produce something as close to special as I could. I worried and fussed and fretted.

This cactus sits in a seldom used room (the gallery where Steven's work is displayed) and I only watered it once in the last 6 months (which included the summer, which certainly was far from cold most of the time), as far as I remember. The room is kept at just above freezing to prevent damage to the pipes, so it is hardly a plant friendly environment, I would have thought. I hadn't even looked at it in weeks/months, so it was a delightful surprise when I peeked around the corner in the room last week and there it was, in full bloom! I watered it at once, of course, full of remorse, and brought it into the coolest corner of the living room, so that we could enjoy the colours before the blooms drop off.

This particular photograph was a challenge. Today, as it was blizzard conditions and too windy and snowy to go out without risking my camera, I decided to photograph one of its flowers. I had taken ones I preferred the day before yesterday (the day 1 of my project when I posted my self-portrait) but I felt that I should try today to do another. There was little light and I was not up to setting up the studio lighting and besides, carrying this plant across to it in the blizzard would have left me nothing to photograph.

When I had taken the picture and was editing it I realized that it was 'out of gamut' and would not show the colours correctly in the browser. This plant has such brilliant lovely reds and you will not see anything like them, but you get a rough idea of the beauty. So my lesson is learned. If I have one that works, post it and don't try to recreate it. This is the one I took today.

For the #365project +G+ 365 Project by +Simon Davis-Oakley and +Patricia dos Santos Paton 
Also for +FloralFriday and the lovely +Tamara Pruessner 
and for +Ursula Klepper who loves flowers and takes such beautiful photographs of them herself!