Impossible. Part two.

Impossible to narrow these down to any fewer pictures, starting off with more than a couple hundred, nearly a vacation's worth, taken during not even a couple of hours.  Again, impossible to truly capture the feel of actually being here.  Almost impossible to believe even when you are.  An impossibly beautiful and magical wonderland.  Easy to get lost in.  Hard to walk away from. 

Caught up in it all, somewhere along the way I set my mittens down and, probably close to an hour later, with freezing fingers and my real life responsibilities back inside the house calling me, I had to track and retrace my wandering footsteps through the snow to find them.

Warmish days followed by cold, clear nights, and fog in the more open and low-lying spots on our place seem to be just the right formula to create this each of the last few mornings. The longest of these crystalline formations were about one inch long.  It only lasts as long as it stays cold enough, until the sun comes up and warms the air enough to make it all either fall or drip down to the ground below.  By noon, at the latest, it's all gone.

Even so, it was only on the grasses and trees down in the open field.  See? Not at all on the only slightly higher hillside.

Hoarfrost A deposit of interlocking ice crystals (hoar crystals) formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually those of small diameter freely exposed to the air, such as tree branches, plant stems and leaf edges, wires, poles, etc., which surface is sufficiently cooled, mostly by nocturnal radiation, to cause the direct sublimation of the water vapor contained in the ambient air.

I wasn't really even sure if this was the name for it until poking around online.  Of course, no surprise, there's an entire Flickr pool's worth of photos. 

"Hoarfrost" or "rime" seem too harsh of words for such a fleeting and fragile phenomenon.  "Frost ferns" or "fairy frost" (although not this one nor this one) seem more like it, or even the common explanation, "the work of Jack Frost."

Last summer's skinny grass stems cast thick, fuzzy shadows in the low, winter, morning sunshine.

If you listen quietly, and gently brush the sparkling crystalline ferns off and onto the snow below, it sounds like the tiniest of glass fairy's bells tinkling into the crisp cold air.

Comments

[Stephanie]

That is spectacular! I have never ever seen anything like that before. And I agree. I like "fairy frost" much better. Wow. I wish I could see it in real life. So neat!

[Hege]

Absolutly beautiful pictures!!!
We can be lucky to have rime of this sort in the fall, but not as much as this.

Have a great weekend!

[Holly]

That is completely amazing!! I've never seen frost like that. Ice, yes, but not frost. How cool!

[Janine]

Absolutely beautiful - thank you :-)

[Mandi]

De lurking to comment on the crystals.What amazing pictures! My two year old ran up to the computer and said " Oh pretty Whas that? " I think that means fabulous pictures? I tried to capture the moon the other night also. I got the first couple and then we fell asleep darn!Love your blog!

[Paula]

I think you did a great job of capturing the beauty of the hoar frost. We get it here in the city too, but not very often, and I agree that the sound it makes is just beautiful.

[Dawn]

That is incredible. Thank you for venturing out in the cold and taking those gorgeous photos.

[LizzieK8]

Oh how beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing!

[liz]

Beautiful...simply beautiful. I live in NW IN and we occasionally get hoarfrost (with our freezing temps and buckets of snow), but I never have morning time to venture out and take pics. Thank you for showing me what I'm missing.

[Georgia]

Gorgeous. Isn't nature wonderful?

[jean]

absolutely stunning. as always, your hood takes my breath away.

[Dave]

Gorgeous photos! Definitely one of the best things about winter.

[Laura]

I love the pictures! Thanks for sharing the joys of winter.

[blackbird]

Thank you thank you thank you -

what beautiful things for me to see this morning.

[jennie]

That is amazing and beautiful! I have never before seen frost like that, and i can understand how it would be hard to tear yourself away. Thank you for sharing those photos with us. :)

[ange]

Wow. I have never seen frost like that. Just amazing.

[Melissa]

So magical!! I love the term Fairy Frost myself! I've never seen anything like that. Just beautiful! Thanks so much again for sharing it with us!

[Linda]

I've never seen that before. It's amazing and beautiful. You live in a wonderland.

[Carmen]

You take to most beautiful photos!

[Julia]

Oh, I want to live where you live! So beautiful. I love how blue the sky is in all that snow.

[AMBER]

Oh, I love when frost is like that. I also love that quiet little tinkling sound of winter. Crazy as it might sound, I feel like it's not cold and wintry enough here! Maybe I need to move to Montana? ;-)

[Donna]

Your blog is truly a gift to me..thank you so much. That was so beautiful it brought tars to my eyes.

[cloth.paper.string]

amazing. i'd heard of hoarfrost, but had never seen it before. i'm in complete awe. thank you thank you for sharing such wonder.

[Silver Ilix]

Wow, I have to echo these comments thank you so much for these amazing images!

[Barbara]

Out here in the west-- Sierras and high mountain desert, we call it Pogonip! It's not too uncommon phenomenon!!! Your pictures are beautiful.
There is a book published called "Pogonip Magic". It is half child's tale and half a photographic journal. I gave it to one of my grandchildren a couple of years ago.
Barbara