A Winter Wonderland

What if you woke up one winter morning to a suddenly alien landscape?...

Where nothing appeared as it had the night before?...

Where slumbering birch trees suddenly resembled prickly pear cacti...

Or patients desperate for a good dermatologist...

Where tiny crab apples grew giant spikes...

And delicate branches sprouted thorns of ice...

And what if this winter wonderland arrived on Christmas morning?...

That's just what happened last month at my house in western NH...

The phenomenon, known as hoar frost or rime ice, was particularly intense...

And had meteorologists buzzing from Boston to Burlington...

Can there be any doubt that nature is the greatest gift of all?