Sunday, December 21, 2008

Crystal palace

On our way home last night a bit of freezing rain was falling; by the time we got home (at midnight) there was a hard candy shell on the snow. Didn't know what we'd find this morning, but we weren't expecting what we got: more snow, another hard candy shell - and ice crystals sprouting from everything! Rick offered to do morning chores, so the following photos are what I could snap from the doorways in my slippers. If I donned my boots and coat, I'd probably fill up my camera's memory card many times over!


Basking in breathtaking beauty at . . .

15 comments:

Gone2theDawgs said...

Those are some AWESOME frost shots! We got 8 more inches of snow last night and then a freezing rain this morning....it doesn't look like it gave us the kind of photo opportunities yours did! :)

Your little footprint shots look like the ones I posted.....are they chickadees too?

I got a feeling I might not be making it to work again tomorrow....heck of a way to use up my vacation.

country girl said...

Beautiful. I've never seen ice crystals like that.

A :-) said...

Still not much snow from the latest storms where I am, but my entire neighborhood is covered in ice still. There are branches broken off all the trees and bullets of ice falling now that the wind has picked up. It's -3 and the wind chill is about 35 below. I'm in for the day!

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

You've got pogonip! At least thats what it looks like, very interesting history to the name, if you're interested go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogonip_(weather)

Michelle said...

Thanks, Becky; I've never heard that term before! Wish Wikipedia had included photos for comparison, as the words really don't describe how it looks. It wasn't really foggy when we woke up, but it is quite foggy now. Maybe we'll get more?

Delighted Hands said...

Just amazing pics.....thanks for the gallery of beautiful shots!

Unknown said...

Amazing ice crystals - our snow started about an hour ago, and we are getting 4-8" today, followed by 18" tonight in blizzard conditions. We are predicted to get snow for at least 5 of 6 days next week, so a white Christmas appears a certainty for us.

Merry Christmas!

shadow mountain jacobs farm said...

Those are beautiful. I really like the one with the spider webs (under the deck?). All of them are pretty. Snow and frost has a way of freshening everything up and making it look new. All my mud and dung in the pasture is now looking pretty :-)

Kathleen said...

Gorgeous, gorgeous shots of the ice crystals. I showed them to O, who has never seen ice, or heard of freezing rain, or been in a snowstorm. He was speechless. I got homesick.

Anonymous said...

Great shots Michelle! Around these parts, us mountain folk call that "hoar frost," pronounced "whore." :D

white_lilly said...

How beautiful! nature is so breath taking. I love the last photo of the birds footprints in the snow.
Have a lovely Christmas and New Year

Sue

Tina T-P said...

I loved the picture of the spider webs - how cool - Sharon at In Stiches has just written a blog on pogonip - your pictures look very similar -

Hope you are all staying safe. T.

Kathy said...

I believe you've got what's called "hoarfrost" there, Michelle...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost#Hoar_frost

A friend of our family in NZ just did a beautiful book of pictures of all the hoarfrost he photographed in New Zealand.

Just beautiful.

Rayna said...

gorgeous stunning photos! What kind of camera do you have?

Michelle said...

Well, folks, you have me confused; I don't know if we got hoarfrost or pogonip! I'll just call it pretty. :-)

Rayna, my camera is a Fujifilm FinePix E550. I got a great deal on it on eBay, and it has a lot more features than I know how to use! I just set it on automatic and shoot....