No snow here yet. (Knock on wood) but this is our backyard several years ago. Its amazing how it has changed since then. The blue spruce is gone, the dogwood at the right is gone, the oak jutting into the upper left died, fell, and broke the larch that was barely visible then. Also other trees have grown up in the foreground, and in the gap in the background blocking the view of the mountains.

A walkway along the edge of the ocean on the island of Madeira, the first picture shows the scale as a couple narrowly avoid the spray from a medium sized wave. the second picture show one of the largest waves during the 5 minutes our tour spent there. I wonder why the tour driver didn't want us to try to walk the walkway.

I was surprised earlier in the week to see that Bewick's Wrens had nested in our birch birdhouse. They were very secretive, and I only chanced upon the two parents and the begging young once, and have yet to see or hear them there again even though the house is in plain view. They must have begun nesting around the end of last year--which is surprisingly early. They don't usually begin nesting until February-March.

"I cannot imagine why this light house is adjacent to some of the lock in the Panama Canal. " Maybe it's an observation tower or something like a control tower at an airport. The "windows" on light houses usually go all the way around but not this one.