I took Jet out for his usual walk first thing this morning. We have our little routine - we walk before he gets breakfast and before I get coffee, but I figure his bladder is our top priority. This morning, it was wonderfully sunny again, but the frost had been heavy last night, and all the trees were wearing their robes of fleeting diamonds, glinting and sparkling for a brief time before the sun stripped them of their finery. I tried to take some photographs but had real difficulties in getting the sparkle factor to even approach the "real life" view. Still I managed to take a few shots worth sharing.
The sun was rising and there was a faint haziness as I looked off into the tree line.
It's so disappointing to see these pictures upon download - if you had been there to see it, these two shrubs were absolutely covered with sparkle, and even slight movements of my head would bring out a whole new crop of different sparkles. Just breathtakingly beautiful - here you can only see hints of some of the glinting. Why oh why does my camera not show the sparkle?!
Here you can see how the crystals form in ordered lines along the branches of the trees. When I looked closely, I could see how each one was a slightly different shape and conformation.
The alder cones had their own little fancy jewels adorning their little brown bodies.
Not everything is brown, though! Here some russet coloured catkins hung in their frozen garments.
The sun was carrying on its steady march into the sky, and I knew those crystals would all be gone before long.
Dried seedheads from last year's wildflowers sparkled all around me.
I thought the catkins were particularly photogenic.
My favourite photos were those that found touches of red in that wintery landscape. Here are a couple of pictures of frozen wild rose hips, their rich red contrasting with the blue white of the shade. It was a shame that the sun wouldn't touch these for a while, otherwise their colours might have been even brighter.
Also a branch of red dogwood caught my eye - this one in the edge of the sun's grasp.
Later on, the sun went to hide behind the clouds and there was a short lived snowstorm this afternoon with near white-out conditions. I'm glad I got to see the morning's finery before it was all covered up by the snow!
6 comments:
How very pretty! It must have been breathtaking in person.
Beautiful photo's! Bladder before coffee...love it, Claire! You are so very thoughtful! :)
It's a rare piece of electronics that can capture magic. Don't be too hard on your camera. Thank you for sharing the beauty.
Dang, I wish you could have captured the sparkles, too. I had a similar issue taking pictures of our "big" snowfall here. Those upright crystals look way more impressive though--it must have been quite a bit colder than it was down here.
Oh you did make the cold weather beautiful again, great job of it too ! Now me. ~ well I was so fed with the cold weather around here I pulled up old photos of our farm from last summer and posted them as this weeks blog entry just so I could see my animals having fun in the sun and look forward to the warmth ! Actually the minis and our Shetland pony I think prefer Winter , no pesky bugs ;)
I find winter and all its sparkleyness just wonderful! I tried one night to capture the snow falling~ when I looked up past our porch light it looked like twinkly fairy dust glitter in the air, but alas; the camera couldn't see it. I guess some of the beauty has to live on in our memory! :))) Thanks for sharing your morning walk! (I always take care of the animals first too...just seems right. :))).
Hope your totes arrive soon?
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