Hello, winter, what a surprise!
Icicles blooming before our eyes!
Well, not quite like that. But the heavy frost did come as a surprise to me yesterday morning.
We’ve had skirmishes with frost the last couple weeks, little touches announcing that the hard one is on the way, but up until now we haven’t had anything serious. It’s been chilly, yes, but not quite to the point of freezing.
Well, two nights ago it arrived. Mom woke up around 12:30, noticed that the air was pretty cold, and turned the sprinkler on. I woke up at 6, realized that my room felt like a freezer, turned my fan heater on, and went back to bed. I got up around 7 when the room was nice and toasty.
Then came my morning routine–go in the house to get some hot coffee, and grab the overnight oatmeal with peaches that I had made the night before (you can’t beat pre-made breakfast!). After hearing how the water had been on for about seven hours, and seeing a sample of the icy coating on a pumpkin leaf someone had brought up, I decided that despite the fact that my coffee would get cold, I had to get a few pictures of the beauty out in our ice-encased garden.
It was more beautiful than words or pictures can describe. I guess God’s creation is normally like that, but I rarely stop to just look and stand in awe.
The most beautiful thing I saw in that half-hour out in God’s beautiful frozen paradise was the thistle flower. Showcased in a perfect sphere of ice.
The hollyhock was another favorite specimen.
I just have to wonder, looking at this…why does God choose to use cold to make such beauty? I don’t enjoy being cold. But yet, perhaps, sometimes He uses things like cold to draw us to Himself.
The really interesting thing was–once the sun came out and melted away the ice, the plants looked perfectly fine. They hadn’t been frosted. The ice itself kept the plants from dying. There’s a scientific explanation for why this works under certain conditions, and I won’t go into it now. Suffice to say that for us, this was a fascinating experiment, and it was successful this time. If you want to read up on the technical side of why this works, go here.
Last night, the sprinkler didn’t get turned on early enough, so we did get a little frost damage–it was almost as cold last night as the night before. And from the looks of it, we’ll be getting another good one tonight. But for now, I feel privileged to have been able to see the beauty in our garden, and ponder the spiritual allegories that could be derived from the experience.
And yes, by the time I was finished taking pictures about half an hour later, my coffee was quite cold. It did still taste good, though!
The intricate ways God made this world are truly incredible!
And for the giveaway winners: Please join me in congratulating Bonnie S, Ashley S, Nancy T, Ross T, and Camy L for winning the One Year Celebration Giveaway! Congratulations, friends–and thank you, all of you, for participating. I wish I could send a prize to each of you, but I can’t. I am planning to host more giveaways just because they’re so fun, so hopefully if you didn’t win this time you can later. 🙂
What was your most memorable experience with ice?