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Morning Frost-1, 2/4/12
Photo by L.L. Kooyer |
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Morning Frost-2, 2/4/12
Photo by L.L. Kooyer |
The last couple of days have been beautiful, giving the illusion of a white winter. It did not snow but everything was covered in hoarfrost, formed from freezing fog painting a delicate landscape of mostly white with subtle shadows of faded colors and gray. In the photos of the frost that I took this morning the sun has replaced the gray.
This has been an unusual winter and I have to admit that, personally, I'm not the least bit upset about that. Keeping warm has not been a problem. Those days when stepping outside is actually painful have been rare this year and the lack of moisture has saved me a lot of shoveling. Last winter we had plenty of snow and a wonderful snowshoeing season, but shoveling was pretty much an every day event. There has been no snowshoeing this year, so I admit the lack of snow does have a downside, although I happily ignore this most of the time. Snowmobilers, skiers, even ice-fisher folk have reason to complain. Poor conditions for snow sports means area businesses don't do as well and the lack of moisture could cause problems if we don't get enough rain when warmer weather moves in. Yet thinking along that path we can be happy that if winter continues to wimp along, spring flooding this year will be minimal to non-existent and, even better, spring may come early! And be less messy. Can spring be less messy? Do we ever have spring up here anyway? There are those who maintain that most years we skip spring and go directly from winter to summer. But back to the subject - umm…
oh, yes - Despite little snow we have managed to get out cross-country skiing a few times. We've slid over pine needles here and there, but mostly there has been just enough snow to make getting out in the beautiful woods possible. Below are two photos from one such trek.
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Ski Trail
Photo by L.L. Kooyer |
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Skiing with C.C. White and Ann Pyle
Photo by L.L. Kooyer |