Frosty Mist
The cold lingers, but lessens, and with beauty
It is still cold, though, but the sun does make an appearance now and again, enough to start the thawing process. It is still too cold to make the large amounts of snow thaw, only enough to sweep the surface — and enough to create frosty mists. In some cases, this means that I can wake up to a completely white landscape, not because there has been a snowfall but because the fog creates an icy cladding to everything.
On a walk two days ago, I went to the lake close to here and found that it was frozen, although there was an area at the end of the lake where there was still open water. On the lakeside, ducks and coots huddled together under bushes, puffed up to keep warm, while others were far down the lake for a swim and to look for food.
The walk to the lake follows the path that passes under the main road, and it took me through into a white wonderland. At night, when the cold increases, the mist will dissolve and leave a beautiful clear starry sky, but it will also leave all the moisture to freeze onto every surface: trees, bushes, cars, snowdrifts, door handles, well, everything, even the abandoned nest of the European magpies.
On my walk back, I saw hoarfrost-covered catkins, trees, leaves, grasses, even a snowdrift that had been decorated with hoarfrost. The magic of this type of hoarfrost is that it is fairly ‘thick’ and shows all the plants and trees in an eery sort of beauty, and if the sun comes out, they all sparkle.
The mist has just dissolved again tonight, so I shall be out watching the stars on their winter parade — Orion, the Seven Sisters, Aldebaran, Capella, Cassiopeia, and the big, beautiful planet Venus.
Enjoy your winter weather wherever you are.
