frozen feathers

Hello!  Time sure flew by this weekend... I hope yours was a good one, and that everyone celebrating had a wonderful holiday! Ours was filled with lovely extremes: quiet and wild, slow and busy, full and peaceful. Most memorable were the special gifts that had nothing to do with what was wrapped under the tree: from grandma's many delicious meals to the bliss of having my husband home with us all day long from last Friday into the New Year! And let's not forget the two silly children, giddy with excitement, who kept us all entertained. During a momentary lull on the afternoon of Christmas day, I crept upstairs for a (rare) winter's nap. It wasn't long before my husband gently woke me up to say that I'd better throw on some boots and grab my camera. In the blink of an eye a magical mist had swept over the meadow and enveloped the woods.  He knows me well... who needs sleep?

The mist had clung to each branch and then turned to ice. It cloaked everything in sight with frozen feathers, which reminded me of Margie's Canadian weather, of late.


I didn't catch it at its peak, but it was still quite awesome, don't you think? I did arrive in time for a tremendous thundering of flapping wings, as hundreds of Christmas geese burst through a shroud of gauzy clouds and honked what I took to be their holiday greeting.

I quickly tried in vain to capture them on video for my family who was tucked in by the wood stove... and for all of you, too! I am most definitely a novice film maker.  I don't blame you one bit if you giggle (or wince) as  the camera goes wild when I stumbled from craning my head too far backwards. Needless to say, this may give you a taste of the flying frenzy I witnessed, just multiply it by about 20!

You can also peek in at several photos from the weekend right here on my flickr stream. We're enjoying this sweet and slow last week of the year... you, too?