Some of you may remember a post I wrote in February about taking the following two images and combining them to make a composite image, the one I wanted.

This tree is about a mile and a half from my house, and it seems my fixation on it admiration of it hasn’t decreased. Since I have a distinctly winter picture now—and we don’t tend to get much snow—I thought it would be fun to do four different seasons of the same tree.

I just pray these people don’t think I’m stalking them.

I’ve tried to come up with a way to make spring and summer look different (because really, they don’t). A couple of times I’ve driven by—without my camera, of course—and seen cows under the tree. That could make the difference.

Because nothing says “spring” like cows, right…?

One day last week I raced home for my camera, intent on capturing them. It was high noon—not the best light—but they were there! When I returned, all I found was one renegade cow, taunting me, sprawled on the ground in a totally unphotogenic fashion.

The next evening (about 7:30) I had my camera. There were no cows, but the sun was getting lower and the light was nice, golden. I snapped another picture. (All of these are taken from the driver’s seat of my van, stopped in the road.)

Is that a huge difference, or what?