We drove into Bend last night in the dark, and weren't able to see the fairy kingdom made by frozen fog on trees and bushes until this morning. I took all of the photos in this post in color, and I didn't change the color in Photoshop. A few of the photos came out really well. Others are included to help me remember the day.
There was only a dusting of frost on the ground - no snow - but every branch and needle were covered in lacy white, making the green of the trees look more black than green by contrast. After this week, I won't be back to Bend for a number of months, so I've included a lot of photos in today's post. It was magical being out in these conditions.
First stop, Starbucks, where the papers were full of the news of the fizzled "device on Flight 253. This is when I realized what an entirely different feel the day would have had if the thing had gone off - not only for family and friends of the passengers, but for everyone. Of course, the news continued to be filled with bits about airport security failures, failures to make use of information in databases, etc. The consequences will not be over at the end of the day, even though (thankfully), the passengers touched down safely.
We stopped in a parking lot, because we wanted to take photos of various plants we'd seen along the roadside. There were a few colorful leaves on this dark green bush.
This one came out really well. It may help to enlarge it.
I took this because I liked the shape of the small trees. When I saw it, I liked the color in the otherwise-monochromatic scheme.
Heh. Iced mocha today? Actually, I've been getting cold coffee drinks lately, but not at McDonald's.
Aesthetically, I could have left this one out, but I like the variety of trees covered in frost.
Approaching the traffic circle.
This is one of the things I wanted to photograph. I like the deer in the wreath and the feathery white background. Bend has sculptures of one sort or another in every traffic circle in town, or nearly all of them. Some are realistic and some are not. I think the city has done a nice job trying to beautify the sterile new streets.
The exposure isn't quite right here, but I liked the sun glow on the trees that were painted on the door to Pine Mountain Sports. It looked very nice as we entered.
We stopped at Strictly Organic for some breakfast burritos, and this was the view out the window in front of the counter where you can sit down to eat. I've had their coffee before, and I think it's the worst I've ever had anywhere. In fact, after much consideration, I threw it out. But their burritos were fantastic.
The bell-shaped lights are reflections from inside Strictly Organic.
The "numbers" they give you that correspond with your order aren't numbers at all, but countries. Funny that we got Tanzania, because Lee will be there on his upcoming trip, so he was able to show me his route and where he'd be staying. I'm certainly looking forward to the photos.
More reflections, more frost. I like the shape of the arch in the bricks, too.
I took this out the other window. I like a number of the elments here, but the first thing that caught my eye was the unusual coloring of the trim.
Again from the cafe window: red, red, nice shapes of the bike rack, and a square within a square.
In the corner of the room behind us as we were eating, was this nice tree painted on the wall.
The counter where we ate was cool. I think it must be palm wood in laminated rectangles. The next photo shows what nature can do in Creative Design class.
Isn't that wonderful? The smaller dots look like a jaguar's coat.
I'm not sure why I included this one. It was just part of the moment.
Strictly Organic supplies water for dogs. But today a dog would need an ice pick.
Frosty bike. Cool bike rack design.
I've taken pictures of these grates before and liked the color better without the frost, but this time I noticed the type: It says, "Bend, Oregon - Est. 1905."
Oak leaves. I love the pale brown.
This is one of my favorite pix of the day. I took it through the windshield of the car, looking at the lacy white-on-white trees on the right, but it turned into a nice composition, and and love the colored sign, too. We were almost home.
