Pictures for Pam, Day 44: Frosted Acorn

(+2 insets)

It's the first day after Winter Solstice and it's already so much lighter out! Ok, not really. LOL, but it is very encouraging to know that the days are now getting longer. I shouldn't complain. After all, parts of Canada, Norway, Greenland, as well as the North and South poles, experience between several weeks and a couple of months where the sun doesn't come up at all! No thank you!

When I looked outside this morning, I knew it was going to be really cold. Twinkling back at me, I was excited to see that the meadow was gleaming white with frost! What a nice change. It has been uncharacteristically mild this winter, with few days of frost and not as much rain as normal either. However, today was going to be a "normal" December day.

When I headed out for my walk, the freezing cold bit into me instantly, yikes! I wasn't surprised to see it was a mere 26°F/-3.333°C degrees. In fact, no matter how fast I walked today, my extremities refused to do anything but get colder! That's really saying something because the walk up our driveway will really get your heart pumping if you don't dawdle. The grade (steepness) from the main road up to the base of our steep hill is about 15-20° degrees with a spot that's about 25° degrees. Plus, I'm out there for an hour and fifteen minutes of continuous hiking. That's cold!

Incidentally, I bet this question has crossed some of your minds: "If you live in such a pretty area, why do you confine yourself to walking up and down your driveway?" The fact is, I love to walk around our lovely 3 miles/4.8km "block" and I used to do this every day. The problem is that it's much more flat and thus, not as good for exercise. It's an obvious difference in terms of exertion and personally, if I'm going to exercise, I'd like to get the most bang for my buck!

After I got back inside today, I became one with our heater for the next 20 minutes until I was all fluffy and warm again. Then I got a hot cup of tea and fairly purred up to our "game room", where Steve and I have our computers. Later Steve went on his walk and returned to the house afterwards in utter amazement...he had on two sweaters, a scarf, a coat, a hat and thick gloves and he didn't take off a single thing during his whole hour!

In honor of today's ridiculously cold temperatures, I'm sharing a picture of a frosted white Oak acorn cap. I captured this image a few weeks ago when we had one of those perfect frosts with lovely crystals all over everything. (Today's frost was lovely but not quite as dramatic.) I've also included another frost picture, frost covering a barrel with a puncture in the side.

Pam, I wonder what the weather is like where you live. Do you get beautiful frosts? I hope that you're keeping warm and dry and getting lots of loving attention from friends and family. Happy holidays my dear! Here's to feeling better every day! :)

Explored on 12/23/18, highest placement, #1.