Spring walkabout

After the long winter we are still defrosting from, I have been taking walks around the neighborhood to capture Spring awakening once again.
 One of my favorite places is Moody Park, a serene place where people love to take leisurely walks, use the bike trails and to walk their dogs.
  I have been taking an online photography course and am learning how to use manual mode almost exclusively. It is frustrating at times, but the pics are getting better as I use it more.
Here are a few I recently took at and near the park in the past few weeks. i hope you enjoy looking at them, and your comments are always welcome :)

A couple walking their dog.

Mount Ascutney,Vt.

Runoff stream from melting snow.

Tree tops at sunset

Future site of Grace River church.

First rounds of Spring!

Maybe Spring is finally showing up in New England?..

The winter months were long, cold and snowy. I have been looking forward to sunny, warm days for about one hundred days! Now that April is here and the snow is slowly melting, I have been out taking photos of the neighborhood as an excuse to get fresh air. I have signed up for a few facebook photo groups and often post pics there, but mostly just want to get out and try to improve my shooting skilz ;)
here are a few pics i took these past few weeks.

We tapped about 20 maple trees for sugaring. Most of them are on the Walkers' property in Cornish.
We made between 4-5 gallons of syrup, which took about 160-200 gallons of raw sap to make.

Drilling hole for tap.

Placing tap in place.

Checking bucket for sap.

Clear sap flowing from maple tree.

Pouring sap into bucket.

Boiling off water to make syrup.

Freezing nights and warm days help sap run best.

Boiling down sap.

It was quite a task, but we really enjoy fresh syrup so it was worth the work.

Other signs of spring are the dirty snow piles and mud puddles all around, as well as the flocks of birds looking for roosting places. The squirrels and chipmunks are still visiting the bird feeders but I haven't seen them try climbing the pole since we put petroleum jelly on it.

Fat tree rat

Birds migrating northward.

sparkling puddle of melted snow.

Reflection in snowy puddle.

Robin looking for a bite.

My husband took our son ice fishing for the first time. They went to Deering Reservoir in NH with some friends. My son was quite excited to have caught two bass! Their friends caught five, but my son felt sorry for the fish fighting to breathe out on the ice so he threw one back in the hole :/ oops!

I am looking forward to seeing new flowers bloom and for trees to grow new leaves. the air will soon be filled with the scent of fresh growth and sounds of birds being twitterpated once again :)
Here are a few more photos I have taken so far this season, and hope to add more as I get out to enjoy life more. I think the depression I have been feeling is finally lifting and I can breathe a bit easier.

Rays of sunshine!

Visit from friends while my daughters visited :)

Flag waving in the spring breeze.

For a photo lesson on geometric shapes.

One of the bass he caught!

Happy Spring!