The Second Weekend in December~

When Jon went out to thaw out the car for school he found these amazing frost patterns on the Explorer window. So, technically, this is the first picture of the ones in the blog below!!!

Steve got a hold of Jon's camera Saturday and was taking squirrel pictures. We have all decided this is one really cold looking critter!

This photo is one of Jo's favorites. (of course!) You can't really see the candles, but it says '87'. They didn't want to stay up on the cake. Rod, had a GREAT day even if it was a couple of days' past his real birthday. He partied so hard on Saturday, he was too worn out to go to church on Sunday! He went to the basket ball game Saturday evening and they announced his bday over the intercom--totally made his day!

Moses likes sitting on the boxes of lights and decorations. He prefers the high places. And I'm sure the fact that we wanted him to move was a huge reason for his choice of placement!

Jon finally was able to go outside and get some night shots of the snow on top of two days or more of ice crystals. He took so many pictures, but feels these were some of the best ones. I love the 'red' lilac tree! The upright tree is our pear tree, it looks sort of like a candelabra! And the one with the ice on the light is very cool. Since the first pictures Jon took of the Christmas lights, Steve has put the 'big' lights in sequence. Most of the lights around the house have a 1, 2, 3 pattern--they may all be different colors, but they all match! On the very front we have all white ones with a star above the top floor window and on the far side it is red, white, and blue! He still wants to put up more!!!!!

Freezing Fog!

Last night freezing fog came in and left us some amazing decor. Everything seemed to be touched by the fragile beauty of crystal and it was beautiful to see.

Godfrey was dressed in winter attire, but the addition of ice made him look more magical! I hung my 'evergreen snowflake' on the fence last night and WOW!!!!!

I really need to get this night shade out of the garden, but it looks so pretty. Even covered in ice the deadly berries appear gentled.

I was on a search for a spider web. You know, the geometrical shapes you find everywhere. Well, what I did find were what I thought were icicles. But, when I touched one, they were SPIDERWEB strands covered in ice! Amazing, huh?

The Oregon Grape (which never blooms), my rosebush in the corner of the yard, and the worn out sunflower blooms are all in festive array~

Poor Scooter, this dragonfly is freezing out there!!!!

One of my favorite trees in the yard! It's actually growing fairly well, considering I've managed to kill so many of my bigger plants.

I did find a few webs, but not ones which had distinct dimensions. The first is in an abandoned bird basket and the second seemed to attract a great bit of debris over the last month or two!

The wind chimes on the little house were not chiming, but they didn't need to! As Christmas bells, they were just fine the way they were! The blue lights on the fence are actually my neighbor's~I wish she had lit them, but since it was daytime, they were off.

As I peeked over the fence, I noticed Tex's garden (she has Texas roots, her last name is Burleson) had gilded iris leaves in it. Some of my chamomile was changed into winter beauty with the addition of webs, making my container gardens lovely again.

The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.

~Terri Guillemets