Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Future Is Wide Open


These tree branches have a coating of frost that was laid on them by a heavy winter morning fog. I always wanted to capture something like this on camera, but I had a lot of trouble getting even these. Sometimes even simple things are much harder than they seem.

Getting the camera to focus on this dark and gloomy day was just not very easy to do. In the end I didn't get exactly what I wanted, but I got these pictures, and I'm happy enough with that. Sometimes even when we are disappointed, we come out with something unexpectedly good.

These bare and frozen branches look so dark and empty right now, but they have so much potential to grow into something beautiful and green when spring arrives. And yes, I see hints of spring already even though we are still in the full grip of winter. Winter has to happen so we can refresh all that is around us, and it brings its own great adventures while it happens.


I just want to say that I'm back online after really being gone for much of the past few days. I didn't have to miss my daily posts, but I've had to miss almost everything else. I've had to completely take my computer apart and then reassemble it. Not only did my hard drive fail, but my system fan also failed a day later.

I was able to replace both the fan and the hard drive with much better versions. The new hard drive has about 1.5 terabytes of space. I'm now faced with a brand new drive that is bare of any space, but it has so much potential for plenty of files to come. And the computer is healthier than ever, so better things are very close.

Unfortunately, I've discovered that most of the files on my previous hard drive are probably unrecoverable, at least in any kind of working form. They weren't critical, but I treasured them greatly. But I now have this new drive with so much future potential. Just like a cold winter renews nature, my troubles with my computer have resulted in a new refreshed machine with a future that is wide open. Tomorrow is a new adventure.

18 comments:

  1. Hi Ratty. Close up it looks like a hoar frost. I'd love the chance to take some similar photos :-)

    It might be worth investing in an automatic backup device.

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  2. I'm glad things work out with your computer, Ratty! Well, at least you know how to fix them, anyway!

    The bare tree pictures are gorgeous to me too.

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  3. The future is wide open......

    It depends on how we want it to be.

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  5. Oh, Ratty, so sorry to hear about the loss of all of your files. You have the right to grieve.
    But, you also have a wonderful attitude that this is a time of rebirth and growth and potential of what is yet to come....
    and with your spirit of loving nature, we all can't wait also to see what you will provide to us!

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  6. Oh lucky you to be able to redo your own computer. Wish I could do that. But I probably couldn't get the cover back on if I took it off. Those pictures are great of the foggy ice on the branches. Good stuff.

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  7. Ratty- That first picture is really awesome. I love the curly branches. Yikes- sorry about the hard drive. Not much fun there.

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  8. You did well with capturing the frosty branches, Ratty. Hey, do you have an external hard drive to back things up??? It's worth the investment, I've learned the hard way.

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  9. Love those frosty pictures Ratty! It was like that this morning here. Went down to about 9 degrees last night. But at this moment it's 28 and rising and sunny. But now rain is forecast for tomorrow and Monday and in the 40's! I'd rather have the snow.
    I felt bad when I lost a few things on my old computer too but then when I got this new one it was like a whole new world. I had to get used to Vista though. Liked it after a while. Now this is old too! Ha! But at least it's working good so far..'Knock on wood"
    Glad you are up and running now!! have fun filling it up..Ha!

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  10. Very nice frosty branches shots. Congrats for your new HDD Ratty. Mine the biggest is still 500gb only.

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  11. Some beautiful shots...thank you for sharing.

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  12. Computer troubles are so frustrating. I try to back up my pictures every month or so just to be sure...

    And I know what you mean with trying to capture some details on certain shots. It's always challenging. Well done!!

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  13. i do not know if i would be able to do what you did if the same thing happened to me, i am clueless with computer. but glad you were over it. and your pictures are as always lovely to look at.

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  14. Wow! Love these photos. Beautiful work. :-)

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  15. I just bought a portable external drive a couple of days ago to back up my pictures, but if my hard drive failed I would not have a clue how to fix it. I have been looking at all your lovely pictures of black squirrels. I wonder how they survive in the snow – black is not a camouflage color and they may be prey to raptors? I hope not as they are so sweet. I enjoy your posts a lot.

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  16. Not sure why you should be disappointed - these are perfectly lovely photos under very difficult conditions!

    That's too bad about your files - it's a reminder to make sure things are backed up here. You never know what's going to happen!

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  17. Well I disagree in that these photos capture life with all that frost. They may be Winter photos but they are still beautiful. I am so sorry about your hard drive and losing files but I'm glad you were able to reassemble the computer.

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  18. Love your ice fog photos, it makes bare branches look as though they have been decorated.

    Sorry to hear you lost some files, always a good reminder to do regular back ups. It seems we always working or changing our computers. I just remembered the last time I thought I had lost some files I rebooted to DOS and found out the registry was bad. I repaired it (tweaked is probably a better term) and the files reappeared. Just a thought.

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