A Bluebird Afternoon

Our snowstorm moved on to points north and east, leaving behind almost a foot of new snow in some parts of central Pennsylvania. By mid-afternoon, gray clouds cleared the way for a heartwrenchingly beautiful blue sky.

That's how it is sometimes in the depths of winter: the storm pounds you for a few days until you're gasping for mercy; then come the piercing blue skies on behind it, and you could swear you've never seen anything so beautiful this side of heaven.

They call these bluebird days, the beautiful blue weather that can follow a storm. In these parts, we don't always get a whole day of it; in fact, on this day, it was more like just a few hours . . . thus my term, a bluebird afternoon.

I've loved this area on the north side of campus ever since I can remember: the little lane that is straight and lovely; the regular, undulating fence rails; the craggy, beautiful trees.

I could walk up and down this tree line for hours composing different shots . . . standing on my tippy-toes, leaning on the fence rail, kneeling on the ground. (I read the sentence I just wrote and think . . . Why does my photography sometimes sound like an aerobic sport? Sure does explain the snow that's always on my knees, though.)

I looked back through my photo journal and realized that I have only ever posted ONE photo of this fence rail in snow in the three years plus that I've been photoblogging. I've also included just one photo of the green-lined pathway in summer, back in 2012. 

The fence rail and trees look outstanding when the foliage begins to change in fall. So that is when I tend to be there most frequently. There are several more shots of the same part of campus in autumn, when the trees all turn to gold (Nov 2013, Oct 2014, and Nov 2014 - that last shot is most similar to this one and in fact features the very same tree).

In case you haven't guessed it, the tracks in the snow in front of me are mine. :-) And the red and yellow building just to the left of the fence rail is the new business building, whose cool arc of windows I enthused about less than a week ago. (And yes, I returned there for just a little while on this day - I couldn't help myself, really.)

By this point in the day, order was starting to reign again. Roads had been plowed; most parking lots, also. I walked down through campus shortly after this. The paths were crowded, loud with laughter and talking; when the sun came out, the students did too, like winter butterflies in the sun.

The song to accompany this image has to be about blue sky. So here is one of the most famous songs about blue sky, written by Irving Berlin. Many people have covered this tune. Here is a version that I like: Rod Stewart, with Blue Skies.