Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Lake Effect


Bare Trees

The Crow in Snowy Weather

Grass in snow
Twigs in snow

Tangle Weeds

Tangle Weeds #2

Three Leaves

The Thin Leaf

Weeds n' Snow by the shed

Snow Dog
It's been snowing steady all weekend...bands of lake effect drifting down from Lake Ontario, our typical weather for this time of year...it's enough to make chipmunks go underground...but my dog, Max, turns into a snow bunny! I bundle up and walk with my cameras at the ready (yes, plural!) I started to become a wee bit uneasy when the lens on my little point n' shoot started to make funny noises when I start it up, and I even thought maybe it wasn't taking very good pictures anymore, so I bought the upgraded version of what I have (a Fuji Finepix 9MP to a 12MP), they're just little point n' shoot cameras, they're nothing fancy, I fear anything fancier would probably drive me nuts with too much and such, I learned on manual cameras with light meters and all the extra lenses and gear...I just want simple at this point, what I'm doing now is just a digital sketchbook, and I'm rather pleased with what I've accomplished thus far. Someday I'll buy the big SLR, gotta save my pennies. This selection of pictures came from both cameras...I'm pleased that both cameras performed well, the elder one did better in some cases because I'm more used to how it works...the little new one is going to take some getting used to, I thought it did a good job snagging a shot of the crow in the tree from the dining room window.

There goes the snowplow.

I wrote an essay about Grandma Moses for the newsletter at work, it was fun writing it, short n' sweet, and I finished it in 24 hours. (Not everything I write takes 11 years.)

I've been tinkering around with my manuscript (Drinking from the Fishbowl) on and off all weekend, I'm back tracking through chapters 1-5, having to hit the reset button to get back on track...minor changes, and good ones, I'm quite pleased with it.

I mailed off copies of The Fractured Hues of White Light to my two giveaway winners (at Goodreads) and I'm looking forward to hearing from both of them once they've finished. It's hard to tell with this one how readers are going to react, some like it, some don't. I'm fine with it.

The kitties are getting restless, Willy Big just came charging out of the den, pads skating around on the wood floor, Tiggy-Pooh is yodeling...must be getting near time to eat. There's a dog with his ears turned on...I think he wants to go O-U-T...I better suit up and do that...

5 comments:

e said...

Thank you for visiting my blog, Laura, and leaving such nice comments. Now i have found you and i'm happy i did. I have been exploring your blogs and enjoy them very much. I look forward to following your work! :) Lizzy

Soul Muser said...

Wow. Such beautiful photos. After a hard long day, just seeing these images lifted me up. Thank you.

helen said...

Those are gorgeous pictures. I know parts of NY are buried in snow. I hope it is not too bad where you are.

Laura J. Wellner (author pseudonym Laura J. W. Ryan) said...

Well, it is rather less crappy out there for the moment, but it's the calm before more snow tonight, they're predicting a possible 4-8 or 10-16" (depending on where the lake effect snow bands are) by tomorrow morning! Some areas might get 1 or more inches per hour in the more intense lake effect bands. Just our lucky day (week), I guess! It is pretty when you're on the inside looking out...traveling has been a white knuckle ride!!

karin ceelen said...

These photos are truly beautiful.
I love the sharpness of the lines in them. Almost like a drawing.