There's not a winter that I haven't extolled during the six winters that I have lived since I came here. Some years, the season was not in its entirely ideal mode - the alternating snowy and rainy days. But every winter has a day or two or a little more when winter wonderland in its superlative sense takes place sporadically. Such days are enough elements for me to qualify a winter truly lovable. They drive the thought of the unpleasant days to oblivion.
What I have in mind are the frosty days when all the bare trees are richly coated all over with hoarfrosts, (you may click on the pictures for enlarged viewing)
...when the sun sails across the clear blue sky, its radiant face grinning delightfully,
...when the trees cast long blue shadows over the pristine snow,
...when the frost-coated slender twigs of the birch trees sparkle like million little diamonds strung together.
These are perfect days to ski, to bike around, to stroll and just soak up this typical winter wonderland's poetry.
How about waking up one frosty morning to find these sights greeting you as you draw the window blinds?
Then there are those days when the trees are laden with new snow after a heavy snowfall. Heaps of fresh snow just sit on the bare branches or twigs or on the evergreens, such as pines and spruces.This is quite different from the frost-coated twigs.
Back when winter was not a part of my life, which was in the tropics, each time I saw a winter image, I'd thought that the trees were just covered with snow. Just like that. I had no idea that soft ice crystals known as hoar frost also form on vegetation or surfaces that have been chilled below freezing point during clear frosty winter nights. The result is often an amazing design of ice crystals interlocked together. I didn't understand that before, but since I've experienced winter, I came to personally observe and distinguish these two winter phenomena. And I've never stopped loving them.
Why am I elevating a season that others consider "nasty" or a nuisance? Does it really matter in life? It maybe just a common thing for others, or a catalyst for winter blues. I understand, especially where winter is snowless and wet. But for me, instead of the winter blues, it's winter euphoria, no matter how dark the days or how long the darkness. But more so when the days transform to an all-bright, all-glittery wonderland under the clear blue sky. Truly a wonder of creation!
And that's when winter becomes a poetry flowing rhythmically into my whole being.
I hope that my pictures and winter tribute can infect my dear readers with the same euphoria that fills me.
(More pictures can be viewed here: My Nature Photos)
(More pictures can be viewed here: My Nature Photos)
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