After all those weeks of erratic winter that felt like autumn, heavy snowfall finally arrived to give back to our city its familiar winter wonderland epithet.
It started last Friday with a temperature of around -10 degrees C. The snow came evenly early in the day, then followed by clusters of snowflakes that fell gently. From then on, the air has become a stable below -10 degrees C, accompanied by occasional snowfall.
The ground snow is not that thick as I've seen in my four-year stay here (this is my fifth winter now), but good enough to coat the ground with adorable whiteness and light up the winter's darkness.
Our table at the veranda turned to a "cake" with "royal icing" of snow.
It started last Friday with a temperature of around -10 degrees C. The snow came evenly early in the day, then followed by clusters of snowflakes that fell gently. From then on, the air has become a stable below -10 degrees C, accompanied by occasional snowfall.
The ground snow is not that thick as I've seen in my four-year stay here (this is my fifth winter now), but good enough to coat the ground with adorable whiteness and light up the winter's darkness.
Our table at the veranda turned to a "cake" with "royal icing" of snow.
The window panes are "etched" with intricate designs of frost.
The rippled snow at the base of the dry shrub looks exquisite to me.
Even while the sun is shining and just a few patches of clouds are floating under the blue sky, the snow is still falling and literally filling the air with glitters. This is one kind of winter day that elates me. The sun has been out almost everyday, reflecting its light on every snowflake that sparkles.
At times, the sunset looks like this. A pillar of light juts out from the sun's disk. Even the subdued light of the morning sun displays the same phenomenon. (Sorry about the unpleasant foreground. Couldn't find any other opening at that moment. Just a few minutes later and the phenomenal light was gone.)
Capturing snowflakes dancing around the afternoon street lamps.
The low-keyed light of the winter moon outlines the silhouette of the birch tree.
The waxing gibbous in January evening. There were actually distinctive protruding lights over and under the moon but I couldn't capture them with my simple camera.
Winter evening scenery as seen from our veranda. See those glitters on the snow? I just love them!
Same evening, a few minutes after I took the above scene. It started to snow again. Are these hearts of snow I'm seeing here? And the shape of the clouds around the moon looks like a heart too.
I took this view of our veranda before I went back into the warmth of our home.
It's high time again to wander around and keep the camera clicking. Time to skip in bliss among the star-like snowflakes. Time to let my heart sing out the wonders of winter!
Oh, how I still love winter! I mean the kind of winter we have here in the north.
"God thunders with his voice
in a wonderful way;
He does great things that
are beyond our understanding.
For he says to the snow,
‘Fall to the earth,’
And to the downpour of rain,
'Pour down mightily.'"
- Job 37:5,6
