Christmas is over.  The winter wonderland can go with it.  I’m okay with that.  Return me to my rainy 43 degree days.

The weather here in recent history has been cold.  My cold may not be your cold, but it’s been low 20’s the last few mornings, “warming” to the 30’s. To me that’s cold.  You can poo-poo me if you like.  Yesterday we actually had some snow.  Pretty?  Yes.  My favorite weather? Not so much. Remember:  coastal kid here.

When we were hiking on Friday I told the husband that I loved that we could hike in the snow and then return to the lowlands with no snow.  He was silent in response.  Idaho boy sometimes misses his snow.

Actually, the cat may have been the one to find the snow the most fascinating.  He spent a good chunk of time watching it fall from the sky with obvious fascination.  I packed him outside (he’s an indoor cat) and held him while flakes fell onto his tawny pelt (doesn’t that conjure up great images?).  He stared around in wonder.

The hummingbirds (as best we can count, we have three Rufous hanging around) have not found the frosty weather delightful.  I’ve been in and out of the house taking pictures the last couple of days and have been complained at quite thoroughly.  I even freshened their feeder yesterday and they’re still griping.  I have imagined that they don’t appreciate the cold.  I could be wrong.  However, it would seem, with the less-than-ideal weather, that I’ve managed to suck them into my syrupy vortex by providing a ready food source, ensuring that they’ll stick around for the rest of the winter.

I also put up a regular bird feeder last weekend for all of the other chirpies in the neighborhood.  It’s attracted a few birds…and one large, fat squirrel who is spending a great deal of his time eating bird food.  The husband suggested that we just call it a squirrel feeder.  Stupid squirrel.  He doesn’t look like he’s missed a meal this winter.  With my help he’ll be really plump by February.  Squirrel stew?  I’m kidding.  Though I did say to the husband, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bb gun?”  I paused, then added, “Well, I guess that would kill him.  I don’t want to kill him.”  The husband said, “You just wanted to make a point.”  Exactly!

There were many places I could have gone to take winter photos on Saturday and Sunday.  And, I thought about it.  But, recovery from the tumble down the stairs on Friday has proven a bit more painful than expected.  The six mile hike that same day probably didn’t help.  Nor did all of the bending, stooping and stretching performed when I took the tree down on Saturday.  I have a hard time taking it easy.

So, my nod to “taking it easy” was taking photos on the property rather than going someplace else to do so.  And to take a couple of epsom salt baths.  And to drink quite a bit of wine over the weekend.  And I made a really, really good hot toddy on Sunday afternoon.  Really good.  Reeeaaaaalllllyyyyy good.

Anyways, back to the weather outside being frightful.

While I don’t necessarily like the cold I am completely fascinated with how cold, in the form of frost, coats plants, freezes puddles and generally spins itself into fantastic shapes and swirls.

A leaf, frozen in detail.

Water, stopped in its tracks.

Grass, crunchy and white.

Ferns, a white skeleton of their normally green selves.

We have lots of water around our property.  We sit on clay and, due to poor drainage, we have a creek around the edge of our yard in the winter.  It is now a frozen creek.  With bubbles and frosty edges and sections of crystal.

You’ve obviously caught my fascination with icicles.  Photos of them appeared in both of the hiking posts I’ve logged over the last week (here and here).  I see a super-long icicle and I just want to break it off and take it home and put it in the freezer.

Frost.  Ice.  It crunches, it pops, it whispers.  It’s an amazingly thing.  And, though I am cold-adverse, I find myself drawn outside when frost drops its mantle on the world around me.  Because if I go outside in the cold I get to come inside and make something warm…to eat or to drink.

Stay warm!

P.S.  Does the white balance seem a little too far towards the cool side on many of these?  I was too lazy to play with manual WB (which is something I’m still very much learning) and was going back and forth between daylight (5200 K) and overcast (6000 K).  It was sunny one day I shot and not so much the other.  In many instances, one setting seemed too warm and the other too cool.  Frost may not be as easy to photograph as it first appears…