Photographing the Wind & Looking for Precious Metals - Day 6

Hello Dear Friends/Family!

It's Day 6 of the latest adventure, and we are in sunny Reno!  Yesterday (Sunday), Steve and I took the dogs into the desert so that Steve could play with his new hobby (working his metal detector in search for gold & treasure) while I gave the dogs a good walk.  BUT, Mother Nature stepped in and decided to throw a good old fashioned freeze-your-butt-off-in-the-high-desert wind storm our way.....just because she could.

Photographing the Wind

With camera in hand, always fascinated with the idea of how to "photograph the wind," I took photos of, well, the wind.  The sky.  The air, really. 

Normally our desert drives yield crystal clear views of the surrounding hills.  This photo is but a small example of the dust clouds moving around the local area just outside Reno/Sparks.  So, that was a good start for my photo essay subject - the wind.


It was damn cold outside......the kind of day where our parents had to walk uphill in a snowstorm to school, both ways.....hovering around zero degrees outside and FREEZING cold in the shade.  The wind chill turned the air into little -6 degree knives cutting into our exposed skin.  So, we decided to walk along a gully and canal with steep sides on both sides to get some protection from the wind.

Ya, I know, I look really WARM.

Okay, so other than photographing dust clouds, my method for capturing the wind "on film" came to me as I stood LMAO at a tumbleweed overtaking Klio on our walk. (Mum, you'll have to google LMAO......go ahead, we'll wait......).  Such a curious thing.  A tumbleweed blowing in 30 mph wind is surprisingly fast!  It literally came from behind little Klio, hit her on the hind quarter, then blasted past her as she freaked out and stared it down.  Here is a photo timeline - watch the tumbleweed go!

Tumbleweed is center/left.

Tumbleweed is center/back along the wall.

Tumbleweed is on the right side/back, on the frozen water, almost out of sight.

Within seconds, the tumbleweed was gone!  Very windy!

As you may well imagine, "My Pictures" file photo is FULL of dog pictures, so I while I tried to focus on the wind as my subject matter.....it was impossible not to photograph the dogs in this sequence too.

Loki

Klio

While we were out playing in the wind, Steve was enjoying his new hobby.

Looking for Precious Metals

Truth be told, Steve was looking for a large deposit of heretofore undetected gold.  But, instead, he unearthed 4 very old pop/beer cans and a rusty nail. Seriously. 

He's got the tools and the drive, now he just needs to find him some GOLD!  A fun hobby, and one where he gets to wear earphones.  What do you think?  He's just looking for a little "quiet time."  That's my guess too.  Ha!

Saw a couple of our neighbours again - I call her Black Beauty (original, yeah, I know!)

Hot Tubbin' in the Cold

After a long day of walking and freezing, we decided to be brave and soak for an hour or so in the RV park's outdoor Hot Tub.  The wind was chilly and anything NOT in the water was COLD!  But, we were brave and had a relaxing time, stone sober,  sitting outside like village idiots, during a winter wind storm.  The walk back to the trailer was a wee tad chilly -  but, hey, you only live once, right?

No pictures of us in the hot tub - you're welcome!

 

We woke up this morning to evidence of our chilly surroundings - Snow!  Apparently, it's been a record breaking winter here in Reno.  56 consecutive days without precipitation......that is, until we arrived back in town.  Yes, Reno, you're welcome too.

Hope you are all warm and cozy!

xoxoxo S&S (L&K)