In the frosty air

There were a few days last week where we had fog—or was it smog? Or fmog, as Seb insisted on calling it?—anyway, it was foglike, and beautiful. At night you could hardly see as far as the streetlight, and if you looked off the hill at the edge of our neighborhood, there was just…nothing. A grey void, like the end of the world. The boys and I went outside at midnight one night, in our bare feet, and stood motionless in the eerie grey silence until the cold went right into our bones and we had to tiptoe inside, shivering. But it was so cool, being enveloped by the fog!

The next morning everything was covered with fog-frost, each twig and branch and blade of grass outlined with white. I thought I remembered the name "hoarfrost," and we got into a discussion about it on Instagram. One friend looked it up and found it related to "hoary," as in "old and white"—"a hoary old gentleman." Another friend said she calls this kind of frost "pogonip," which is a Shoshone word for "white death"! 

My friend took the prettiest pictures, and in them the frost is all spikes—long crystalline spikes coming off every which way like thorns. I couldn't believe it! I've never seen frost up close like that. Then I didn't get outside with my camera until the next day, but when the frost came again the next morning, I bundled up and went out with the macro lens. And this was different! Not spiky at all, but more bumpy or fluffy. Still very beautiful. I don't know what causes the difference in crystal formation: temperature? wind? humidity? But I loved looking at it up close.

The crystals on this branch were relatively long—

while these were shorter.

I loved how directional these crystals were, like fur growing out of the branch.

And this was more of just a light white glaze.

Doesn't this look just like a flocked Christmas tree?

The view from farther away was really lovely too, with the outline of each stalk of grass catching the light.

This was the frosty white temple.

But I thought the close-up views were most interesting. Some of these crystals are looking a bit more spiky, but still not individual needle-like spikes like my friend's pictures showed!

What is going on with that one big protrusion?

More directional frost. Quite long and furry here! Like velvet with a high pile.

Rose leaves

Sage

It's good to remind myself what a lovely world we live in. Even when it's cold outside! :)