As a child, I always loved winter sledding with my friends, building snow forts and snowmen. I still love winter. I discovered years ago that winters would go a lot faster when you enjoy playing outside in the snow, instead of dreading them. Snowshoeing is an excellent way to enjoy a beautiful sunny winter day, taking trails that bring to some wonderful destinations that couldn’t be achieved by snowmobile or ski. It’s an incredible workout too!

When I was 19 years old, I learned how to ski. This was one of the first steps in learning how to enjoy winter. For years I used to ski with at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, Vermont. I’d be racing up to Vermont as soon as the kids were out of school on Fridays to get up to the mountains. We would ski all day Saturday and Sunday before piling back in the car to Sunday evenings.

Now my house in New Hampshire looks out towards Ragged Mountain in Danbury, New Hampshire. I used my Opteka 1300mm lens to take this photo from my front deck one pretty winter day where the light perfectly lit up the red barn in the field below.

The bottom of the driveway is where we hop on the snowmobile trail. I have a great respect for snow machines and truth be told they scare me a little. They are very powerful but they can take you to some of the coolest places that would be too far to hike or snowshoe to.

One of my favorite ways to enjoy winter is ice skating. I learned how to ice skate as a small child and I love it still. This past winter the conditions were just right to be able to skate on the lake. It was amazing! I usually can skate a few days here and there on our pond which is about 98 ft long by 40ft wide. So I skate about in circles and do figure eights. When I was kids we used to skate on the pond I grew up on so I was familiar with pond skating. The experience of skating on the lake which you can see from the photo was smooth as glass. It was incredible.

I’ve discovered that winter has a beauty which many people miss out on because they are hiding in their homes waiting for spring and warmer temperatures. I remember running out on this night to try to photograph the moon. The new fallen snow was clinging to the branches and the moon lit everything up like a giant spotlight.

I used to live in New Canaan, Connecticut and when I wasn’t skiing up in Vermont, I was down there raising my two children. As a single mom, I was the only ‘taxi’ driver for them and between having to drive them to and from school – they went to private school, so there was no bus option. Then all the driving around to tutors and after school sports which were year-round. I did a lot of driving. So much so, that I always had my camera with me and would take pictures of where ever I was. I developed a “Driveby Series” I spent so much time in my car. But it was a way of making all that chauffeuring around a bit more tolerable. I saw places I never would have seen if it were not for my children and for that I am grateful.

One of the places that I drove around often, as it was one of my ways home from either work or the kids school was Waveny Park in New Canaan. I spent countless hours in Waveny walking alone or with friends; taking my kids to sled on the hill; or enjoying the music of their the summer concerts or the Family Fourth Fireworks. Waveny is near and dear to my heart.

On my way up to visit my sister or parents’ place I drive by Irwin Park. When we first moved to the area, it was a private residence which was turned over to the town and put in conservatorship. There are walking paths that make their way around the property and an orchard which is visible from the road.

Now I live in New Hampshire where it snows as early as October and as late as May. Most people are age tend to go south to settle when their mid 50s and 60s, not us. We decided we rather go north and settle in for the next volume of our lives together. Our house sits at 1500 feet above sea level. It can snow quite lot up here. During the winter of 2018/2019 we had 139 inches of snow! So we obviously love winter and it’s easy to see why when you live somewhere as gorgeous as New Hampshire.

Some people may think that nothing goes on around here in the winter, that people hibernate like the bears. But that’s far from the case. The lake life doesn’t stop in the winter. If anything there are as many people on the lake in the winter as there are in the summer. Once the lake freezes over the bobhouses begin to appear. Ice fishing is a big sport on the lake, that and hanging out in your bobhouse and drinking beers. 🙂

Mrk and I will be outside quite often whether it be taking a ride down the road in our gator, snowshoeing, skating, skiing, snowmobiling. We have found plenty of ways to make the winter more enjoyable. Oh, I forgot one more fun activity we especially enjoy on cold winter nights. Hot tubbing!

This is is my entry for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #107- Winter hosted by Ann-Christine