White Pine Needles Encased in Ice (© Magi Nams)
This morning I ran our back road through the woods in -20°C weather, a scarf over my nose and mouth to warm my breath, the forest still and silent except for a golden-crowned kinglet’s high, sweet voice. Beside me, ice encased the twigs of birch and alder and the needles of pine and fir. Grasses and goldenrod stood sheathed with clear cold. A breeze rattled rimed branches, evoking a sound like a tinny wind chime. The rising sun shot brilliant light through frozen droplets of water hanging from twigs, casting hot diamonds over the landscape.
Alder Nutlets in Ice (© Magi Nams)
This frigid beauty was the lingering fallout of our most recent Maritime storm, which swept through New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island on the weekend. Saturday teased us with mild temperatures and drizzle that strengthened into steady rain by afternoon. Late in the evening, slick ice coated our porch steps, and Vilis and I heard the clinking tinkle of freezing rain tapping our bedroom windows, blown against them by muscled winds. The descent into below freezing temperatures brought 25 centimetres of snow in the night and Sunday morning. Already sheeted with ice, the boughs of fir trees hung caked with snow.
Iced-weighted Balsam Fir Twigs (© Magi Nams)
Like kids home from school on a storm day, Vilis and I reveled in our cozy seclusion on Sunday. Thousands of Maritimers lost power in the storm, but we did not. After lunch, I shoveled snow off the porch and dug the car out of a drift while Vilis fired up the old David Brown tractor and slowly blew damp, packed snow from our yard and access road. Pepper and I strolled along behind, she plunging her nose into fresh deer tracks, and I photographing ice-coated vegetation.
Vilis Blowing Snow after the Storm (© Magi Nams)
Today is all blue sky, white snow, glass-like ice, and a lashing, cold wind that mocks the sun-shot beauty. Through my office window I see miniature, rainbow flashes emitted from twigs dancing in the wind, courtesy of ice drops that act like a thousand prisms.
Alder and Ice (© Magi Nams)
Ice Prisms (© Magi Nams)
Ice and Sun (© Magi Nams)
After the Ice Storm (© Magi Nams)
Goldenrod and Ice (© Magi Nams)
hi magi…. thanks for capturing God’s amazing handiwork in the ice, snow and sunshine of His creation at home. We are so thankful for your appreciation of His handiwork in every detail.
love ya
anita and the gang in the philippines