Winter Wonderland

We had another snow storm in the middle of last week. It was a kinder, gentler snow storm this time, one that didn't involve no-travel advisories. The snow was wetter, the weather warmer (though as Noni pointed out, we'd still have been toastier in the average refrigerator than outside), and the new-fallen snow was just beautiful.

I'm still enough of a winter novice that I can face the charm of snow with poetic fervor and not the hacking and cursing that most natives produce when confronted with yet ANOTHER snow storm. It really is pretty, and the last two days have added a new facet to my experiences with this year's debut of freezing fog, or frizzle as it is called locally.

Frizzle occurs when it is cold. Really cold. And foggy. Really foggy. The fog freezes on everything it touches, coating the most mundane objects with a delicate dusting of crystal. The fog has no other socially redeeming characteristics than this, because when all's said and done, Montana fog is just as dreary as California fog, only 40+ degrees colder. But, oh, the things it can do.....


The picture at the top of the blog was the sunrise that greeted me Wednesday morning as I left for work. I wished so much that I had time to poke around Grenora a little and capture the scenes of freshly fallen snow, but time and work wait for no man or popsicle, so I contented myself with a few quickly grabbed shots as I drove out of town.

Since Noni was along when I took one of my pictures, I can offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of my blog. She was exacting revenge on me because I took a picture of her taking her Tree-of-the-Month picture. Then when I sank knee deep in the snow, she felt it was a good time to take the motto 'turn-about is fair play', and take this picture of me, covered, nearly up to my ham hocks, with "winter wonderland".

The rest of the pictures were taken this weekend up in or near Westby.






And finally, a view of the whole town of Westby as you come into it from North Dakota. Looks chilly!