Frosty morning

When I got up this morning at quarter to six, I thought someone had stolen the world. There was nothing but white outside. Fog or snow? A rabbit nibbled at the frozen remnants of grass along the edge of the patio bricks. It was too dark for a picture then, but as it got lighter, I took this one of the rabbit tracks.

Rabbit tracks in the fog

 I don’t know if these were all from that one rabbit or if we had a rabbit invasion during the night. Either way, rabbits were busy. All that activity for dead grass? It didn’t seem worth the effort. When I went out to do the chicken chores later, the tracks upstairs told a different story. The rabbit(s) was/were after bird seed. Hilda said she’d gone out in her jammies to chase a rabbit away “and liked to froze to death!”

It was fog, not snow. As the sun came up, it lifted to reveal a world of sparkling frost on every surface. So beautiful! Each needle on the white pine was coated in crystals.

Frost covered white pine needles

Which looked like this on the tree.

White pine

And this on a collection of trees in the fog.

White pine and spruce in the fog

Here is a nest from last summer in the small oak tree by the road.

Abandoned next in a small oak tree

The sun broke through later. This is the back yard.

When the sun came out

And here are the river birch, white against the blue sky.

River birch 

My skin gets dry in the winter, what with the cold weather and low humidity. As I have accumulated a collection of white creams in tubes, I knew it was only a matter of time before I got them mixed up. One morning, my face was so dry and itchy that I opted for cortisone cream instead of my usual lotion. It felt dry when I put it on. Wow, my skin must have been in worse shape than I thought! And then, I smelled the minty freshness….

Toothpaste, left; cortisone cream, right

Could have been worse. At least I didn’t glop up my toothbrush.