Whenever possible I like to get up to see the sun rise on New Year’s Day. Thankfully that is later in the morning this time of year as typically the night before I welcome the New Year and then retire for the night. This year I awoke, grabbed my gear, something to eat, and headed to a nearby lake hoping for a beautiful start to the first day of the year. It was a cold morning with temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit. I didn’t plan on staying out long so I didn’t put on all of my cold weather clothing, just enough to watch the sun come up and then head home. What I wasn’t anticipating was the frost covered landscape capturing my interest.
As daylight grew brighter on this cold morning, I began to notice the little white crystals forming on the trees around me. This winter landscape was becoming white with frost for a beautiful start to 2021. I began to examine the frost covered branches noticing how different it was on evergreens vs bare tree branches and old flower stems from the summer before. The evergreens seem to have little beads of frost while the other plants where forming larger pentagon shaped clear crystals. It was quite interesting to think about how a minor difference in conditions could lead to frost forming differently. Was there just enough difference in the temperature with the evergreens or humidity in the air? Amazing!
The cold was beginning to penetrate deeper and deeper into me reminding me I was only prepared to be there a short time. Heading back toward my car I kept getting distracted with these frost crystals. The sun began to peak out from behind the morning clouds casting some light onto these little ice formations. I had to stay and try to capture this. Heading towards some cattails I noticed the snow beneath me. It looked so soft with lots of glimmering ice covering it. That must be from snowflakes which had melted in the warm sun filled days before refreezing into clear globes of ice.
On closer inspection, I could see frost crystals everywhere on top of snow. This is something I haven’t noticed before but they were everywhere rising up from the snow covered ground. Looking just right they would glisten in the morning sunlight revealing their pentagon shapes, just like on the dried branches nearby. This was so interesting. Unfortunately it was getting more difficult to work the camera with the cold setting into my hands. It was time to go warm up, but hopefully there would be more opportunities to explore this miniature world of frost. I love experiencing something new and interesting. What a great way to begin the new year!
Happy New Year to each of you with hope for many enjoyable moments and memories!
