capturing winter

A couple months ago I joined a local photography meetup.com group, with the goal of getting me back on track with shooting more often and more creatively.  I've done precisely nothing with the group since then. I like to think I've had decent excuses, like recovering from surgery and my "good" camera breaking on me and then being out of town for several weeks...but really I've just been lazy about it.  I'm trying to change that now.  My camera is still being repaired (or waiting for a part to be delivered so that then it can get fixed, last I heard) but I do have my phone which is a pretty mighty little photographic tool in its own way.

The upcoming photo challenge is to post up to 3 photographs that capture what Winter means to you, so I've been mulling over what those images might looks like. I'd mostly been thinking of positive things-- a steaming cup of tea, my favorite scarves, the boys playing in the snow... Then today I took this picture which I realized captures a lot of the less-great aspects of winter for me-- my raw, red knuckles from the cold and dry air; a cup of something warm to help soothe a sore throat; my college sweatshirt that seems to only make an appearance when I feel like crap.

Q and I have managed to all but beat our red eyes, but now D's having his turn with it and we've all added coughs and sniffles to the mix. It was kind of a long day that included way too many replays of Mater's Tall Tales (the latest netflix favorite, thanks Criss for the tip).  But, we made it. And now I'm finishing another cup of chamomile with a healthy heaping of honey before I head off to bed and hope to wake up to a healthier household in the morning.