A snow covered road leading off into the distance.

First snowfall of the year.

It's been a while, but I was busy at work. However, in the mean time, I have started a photo challenge with my oldest daughter. Each week we are picking a subject to take pictures of and some of those will be showing up here. You can also check out her new photoblog under "Genial Photo" link provided on the side. This past weeks subject was weather. I wanted to take a picture of wind and this is what I came up with.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I had to take this picture at several different angles to get what I wanted, that being a picture showing both the underside and topside of the fungus as well as having some decent lighting.

I have been trying to upload this picture for 4 days with no luck, stupid crappy internet. Anyway, this is a wider view of several of the trees in this area with the disease.

This is from one of a group of trees that appear to be infected with some kind of disease/parasite. They all have giant knots like this one, but close up, it makes for a cool picture.

A different perspective on a fallen tree trunk with some deep grooves in the bark.

This picture was taken along a stream that runs near our house. Cyprus trees grow all along this stretch of the bank, and their roots form these nob-like structures.

I went in the woods behind our house today to find some things to photograph. I found a couple of cool things, though nothing spectacular. This was an old rotted out tree trunk.

Not a whole lot to photograph around here lately. This one didn't turn out exactly like I'd like it, but I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities over the course of the winter.

This is my last picture of the fall foliage from 2009. I definitely had a lot of fun this year and got a bunch of good pictures. Can't wait till next year.

Some brightly colored trees on the shoreline of Forbes Lake.

This a more close-up picture of the little stream in an earlier picture.

More color from the forest near our house.

A shot from inside the forest in the middle of it's fall color change.

This is my last picture of the Pine Hills area. It was definitely a interesting place and unusual for Illinois.

This is another picture along the Skillet Fork River near our house.

I thought this picture had some cool reflections in it. The stream is Skillet Fork and runs near our house.

To keep mixing up the fall pictures, here's another picture out at Pine Hills.

Another fall picture, this one of a small stream with a couple of quick drops. The location is actually on the property where I live and the flowing water is the result of us draining some ponds for the research that I do.