A Winter Wonderland

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Branches covered by hoar frost

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

Evergreen covered in rime ice

Where nothing appeared as it had the night before?…

 

Birch leaves with prickly ice formations

Where slumbering birch trees suddenly resembled prickly pear cacti…

 

Peeling birch bark with rime ice

Or patients desperate for a good dermatologist…

 

Crab apples studded with hoar frost

Where tiny crab apples grew giant spikes…

 

Ice thorns on thin branch

And delicate branches sprouted thorns of ice…

 

Evergreen coated in ice needles

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

 

House on Christmas morning

That’s just what happened last month at my house in western NH…

 

Rime ice on winter branches

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

 

Droopy leaves look like pin cushions

And had meteorologists buzzing from Boston to Burlington…

 

Ice needles on pine needles

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