Images on a winter morning.

Text and photos by Bob Kelly

On Friday morning March 5, I went out for some fresh air, wide open spaces, and hoped to capture a few pics of something that would catch my eye, and fortunately three such scenes did just that. The first is a farm field scene north west of Ames about 15 miles that depicts a grove of pine trees and a stately windmill which are most likely all that is left of an original farmstead captured in the soft morning light. A machine shed and a grain bin with propane tank are now also part of the landscape there. I liked the sloping of the landscape, the windmill of course, which is a sentinel of time on the farmland, and the corn stubble poking out through the snow as the soil sleeps and anticipates spring planting.

If you travel to Little Wall Lake you can find this iconic bench with its sun shade, placed on the north side of the lake as you come into the general parking area. I liked the way the sculpted back of bench conveyed the farm feelings of the windmill, grain bin, and farm animals, while the structure of the sun shade framed such farms on the horizon. In another month or so one will see waves splashing on the shoreline, which is in front of the bench.
Later in the warmer sunshine of the late morning this female Downey Woodpecker was the only feathered friend I could find foraging for food in the wooded area east of Carr's Pool. The male of the species looks the same but has a bright red spot across the back of his head.