A BREATH OF SPRING

Yesterday a group of us went to The Butterfly Place in Westford, MA. I had never been to a butterfly house before, and I admit I was a little unprepared to see so many different butterflies all in one place, none of which I had ever seen (or probably just didn't notice) flying around outside. There was this pretty orange one:

And this one, which was one color on the bottom of its wings:

And another color on the top:

It was suggested that we wear bright colors, and my sweater happened to be the color of the flowers that were blooming at the time. While I was bent over photographing one butterfly, another came in for a landing to check me out!

We were told that in another two months, there would be some very different varieties of butterflies, so it might be worth a trip back!

PORTLAND'S VALENTINE BANDIT

Once again the city of Portland woke up to paper Valentines posted on windows all over town, as they have for the past 10 years or so. No one knows who's doing this, as he (or they) is never seen. But it is fun to see all the red hearts in every window!

MY RESIDENT MODEL

I created a new Facebook profile picture, when people declared that we should put our pets up there for the month of February. This would help draw attention to the fate of abused animals. Bo, my model-in-a-pinch, graciously donated his time to the cause. I figured it was a good opportunity to practice my pet photography. Here's one of many that I was able to get him to pose for in the limited time he had for me in his schedule:

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Just playing around with a couple of polarizers and some plastic dinnerware:

SEA SMOKE

Breaking with tradition, I got up bright and early this morning to take photographs. Someone had told me this was going to be a good morning for sea smoke, so I trudged out there just after sunrise (at 2° below zero!). It was a disappointing showing; I've seen much more dramatic sea smoke. But after all that trouble, I just had to work on a few: