Day three of the photo challenge, and it is a nature(ish) shot. The weather has been crazy the past week or so in the United States, parts of the lower 48 states are colder than parts of Alaska (and that just isn’t right), and there is snow in Florida and all along the east coast. I’m going to have to remind myself later this year that winter is only a few months out of the year, and large snowstorms on the east coast, usually equals a day off of work.

We have a very small pond in our backyard, that we put in shortly after we bought the house as a mother’s day gift for my mom. I still remember going with her to pick it out at Wal-Mart and then having to take it out of the box because the box was too big for the car. I also remember having to help dig the hole for it as well–and there is nothing worse than digging in Oklahoma red clay.

Over the years we tried to have fish in it–but since we live next to a creek, there were numerous animals that saw the goldfish as an easy meal (raccoons and snakes primarily). So now it usually just was water irises and occasionally water lilies. It is also the only place that our bearded collie mix will drink from.

As you can see the bubbler is still going, though it does have a nice ice coat surrounding it. We will have a small warm up window where all the ice will melt, before we get back to the cold snap that is suppose to be pushing through the country again this weekend into next week.

I don’t mind winter, as long as I can bundle up and I really don’t have to be out in the weather too long, and that if there is snow it stays around just long enough for pictures and then disappears (unless its Christmas time, and then it can stay for a few days).