Morning Shadows on Frost with Dog

 

Jack Frost in the Philadelphia Wash

Frosty Morning in the Mountains

When the temperature is 13 degrees Fahrenheit in Willcox (yesterday morning), what is it up in Dos Cabezas, 900 feet higher in elevation? Luckily, there was no wind when the morning sun lured me outdoors with Sarah into a thoroughly frost-kissed mountain world.

December Brings Morning Frost

Second Hard Frost of the Season, Southern Leelanau Township

Frost signals a turn in the season, from early autumn color to the cold fall that presages winter, but on a morning of blindingly bright sunshine the beauty of frost eclipses its message. More ephemeral than summer blossoms or winter snowflakes, it must be captured quickly in the space between sunrise and its inevitable melting away in the light.

Frost Landscape on Window

Flaming Finale, Sparkling Overture

The sky just after sunset on Wednesday was spectacular, the nighttime sky clear and full of stars. The next morning dawned clear again, and frost kissed everything.

Fall's Many Faces

Is anyone ever impatient for the season's first frost? Probably not, and yet, when it comes, there is no denying its magic.  Every leaf, every seed pod, every blade of grass takes on a new identity, dressed in costume for an ice palace ball. And since we know that it isn't winter, and it isn't snow, we feel that once the sun rises high enough, the frost will disappear, and the now-beautiful will turn Cinderella-dowdy.

Here comes the sun! Dowdy? How could anyone forget for a minute the beauty returning autumn sunlight would bring to roadsides, orchard trees, and blue Lake Michigan? South Fox Island never looked as close as it seemed on this sunny fall day.

Rain returned in Tuesday, for Election Day, but it didn't keep voters from the polls in our township. I went to town early and found no waiting line at all. Light inside the firehall coming through the doors shone on red maple leaves plastered to the pavement, and the red maple on Mill Street, always at its brightest on the day we go to vote, did its part to add a festive air to the important day.

First Hard Frost, October 22, 2014

This is what the frost looked like on bare fields (above) and orchards (above and below).

So stark and monochromatic in one direction, and so warmly colored in another --

Up close, as always, there was Jack Frost magic to be seen.

Frost or no frost, the view out over Lake Michigan is worth stopping to admire any time of year. Here it was on Wednesday morning:

And then again later in the day --

Large vistas and small corners -- all are captivating. The frost in the field around the little building below isn't obvious, but this particular building always charms me, and the stripey wild apples? Love 'em! And yes, by the time I reached the apples, the frost was only a memory.