Monochrome Challenge: After the First Freeze

/ Richard R. Barron
Despite colder weather, Hawken always wants to splash into the pond up to his chest and get a big drink.
Despite colder weather, Hawken always wants to splash into the pond up to his chest and get a big drink.

My readers will recall that after the first hard freeze of the year, Hawken the Irish wolfhound and I expand our walk to include a large area of woods to the west of our home. If we exhaust all the trails in a single walk, which we often do, it comes to about three miles round trip. We are never bored.

For this edition of the Monochrome Challenge, I brought my tiny, seldom-used Olympus FE-5020.

Bare tree branches are set against a deep late-autumn sky. I used the red filter setting in Lightroom to give the image some additional pop.
Bare tree branches are set against a deep late-autumn sky. I used the red filter setting in Lightroom to give the image some additional pop.
The sun shines through a portion of woods onto tufts of wheatgrass.
The sun shines through a portion of woods onto tufts of wheatgrass.
We walk past this cross on our longer winter walks. I don't know who or what is buried beneath it.
We walk past this cross on our longer winter walks. I don’t know who or what is buried beneath it.
Sunlight filters through trees onto tall weeds on the far west end of our hike.
Sunlight filters through trees onto tall weeds on the far west end of our hike.
We often take a route that includes going past this pumper jack, which, probably due to low oil prices, has been inoperative for a couple of years.
We often take a route that includes going past this pumper jack, which, probably due to low oil prices, has been inoperative for a couple of years.