Winter showed up around here last night in a hurry. The weather forecasters even had a new word for winter – Flash Freeze. That was what it did last night and then the rain turned to snow. Woke up this morning to a white world. My dog, Frankie, was happy. He likes the snow and doesn’t mind the wind chills either. Me, I mind the wind chills, but we went walking anyway. The snow wasn’t deep and flash freeze or no flash freeze, the mud was still there under the snow. Walking was a little slippery in places. But it was a beautiful sun filled day. Even if the temperatures were cold, that sun looked good. We hadn’t seen its face for a while.
I headed over to the Rock (my cliff area) to see the icicles. Some little ones. Some big ones. When I was a kid, icicles would hang from the eaves of our roof. We lived in an old farmhouse with no insulation. Back then we didn’t worry so much about pollution, so we would break an icicle off and have a frozen treat until our mouth got frozen and our hands too cold to hold it. I didn’t try to grab any of these icicles. Way too slippery to navigate the steep path over to them. I just grabbed them with my camera.
I like to take a walk when it snows. I get to look for animal tracks. Some besides the ones my dog makes as he trails after every new scent. I saw cat tracks, a neighbor’s cat I suppose, and coyote tracks and maybe a bobcat track. And of course, deer tracks. Always deer tracks.
Now tonight a full moon shines down and makes the snow sparkle. I looked out a while ago and saw a golden halo around the moon. I’m not sure if that was because we are going to have a lunar eclipse in a couple of hours. By midnight it’s supposed to be a full eclipse. So I keep peeking out to see how it’s progressing. It’s cold out there so I don’t stand and stare too long. I looked just now and the moon is half covered. I’d take a picture, but I don’t have a good enough camera for that. Others will post great pictures later, I’m sure.
I love all the unique wonders of nature. Icicles on cliffs. Sunlight on snow. Animals tracks in the snow. Moonlight. And the novelty of the moon being covered up by the shadow of the earth.
Do you enjoy the shows Mother Nature puts on for us with rainbows (we had one of those last night right at sundown), snow, and full moons plus a special treat of a lunar eclipse? What wonders of nature have you seen lately?
As always, thanks for reading.