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frost fractals

10:20 pm in Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

Sunday morning’s visual treat was to find our unheated solarium skylights covered over in the most beautiful and intricate frost patterns. I think this complexity is rare here on the west coast. It had been raining very heavily for several days, but cleared and became cold overnight. Notice some leaves trapped in the frost in the lower photos. The bottom photo (below) is taken of the roof glass on the outside, notice how thick the ice is. The sun’s rays quickly melted all away, a fleeting art installation.

“Mathematicians explain that both ferns and frost are fractals — self-replicating patterns — which makes them no less mysterious.” from Frost Smitten

Dr. Universe explains why frost on a window looks like plant life (leaves, ferns and such).

With this display of Jack Frost’s art, the mountain tops white with snow and the forecast calling for more cold weather and possible flurries, I’m now feeling in the Christmas mood. Is it because the first half of my life was spent in places with real winters?

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by Marja-Leena

winter sun and frost

10:15 am in Canada and BC, Home by Marja-Leena

We have had several days of sunshine at long last. As often happens here when the cloud cover is gone, it gets quite cold. At night it’s been as cold as -5C (23F) so there’s frost on the skylights in our unheated solarium, and a thick layer building up on the shady areas of the lawn, looking like snow. Each night the full moon has been a brilliant platinum disc creating patterns of light on the floors indoors so I have no need of lights in my night crawls, just a mythical feeling. What a difference a clear sky makes.

Granddaughter Lael thought these frost fractals on her window look like birds. (Photo by Elisa Rathje)

We did not have frost art this time, just solid white, but the morning thaws created interesting patterns.

Frozen puddles are irresistible to children – and photographers.

sunriseJan24.08.jpg

I love the sun shining into the kitchen in the morning.
This morning’s cloud in the east gave a brief and glorious show of colour.
And the sun is back now.
There’s a chance of snow this weekend – I hope so!

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by Marja-Leena

frost

6:00 pm in Blogging, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

Cold moonlit nights, bright days with barely warming sunshine. The frost is growing fur!

I have posted numerous similar photos of frost (fractals, flowers, ferns, and maybe even fur) over the years. This has become extremely evident to me as I laboriously go over each post (over 1800!) fixing missing line breaks and inbound links that were damaged in this blog’s recent transition to WordPress. Am I so self-absorbed that I keep linking back to my own previous posts? Well, not this time.

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by Marja-Leena

frost ferns

5:13 pm in Being an Artist, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

7:30 a.m. this morning, on the solarium skylights

then later a little playing with photoshop….

compare with frost fractals and first frost

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by Marja-Leena

first frost

8:12 pm in Being an Artist, Nature, Neat stuff, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

This morning on waking I was startled to see a white coat of frost everywhere! Here on the westcoast we know November is the rainiest month so it’s a visual treat whenever we have sunshine, and when we see the fresh new snow on the mountaintops, and even are blessed with some ephemeral art work on our skylights! Compare this photo to the ones I took last year on December 5th. This year’s frost pattern is different, isn’t it?

This afternoon I went around bringing in the last few potted plants, hoping that they did not get too damaged by the -2C because they were tucked against the house. Being so busy making art this fall, I’ve neglected the fall gardening jobs, which get even harder to do now with the rainy days. The dahlias need to be dug up now that the frost has blackened the tops, and I still have to plant my spring flowering bulbs. Rain is forecast again, but please Mr. Weatherman, let it be sunny next weekend, now that I will have some time at last!

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by Marja-Leena

frost and thaw

1:01 am in Photoworks, Textures by Marja-Leena

Clear and cold.

Days of rare sunshine.

Skylights with night shades of solid white frost.

Rising sun’s rays glance frozen glass. Thawing, changing, spreading patterns.

Sun’s art as brilliant as Jack Frost’s.

(Captured between 8:40 and 8:43 a.m. on February 1st, 2011)
Related posts:
Winter sun and frost
Crackle
Frosty

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by Marja-Leena

frost flowers

11:35 am in Canada and BC, Current Events, Home, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

This rare sunny morning, while I was sleeping in, my husband took several photos of the rare gorgeous frost fractals on the sloping skylights in our solarium. What a lovely gift to ring in the holiday season after weeks of extreme rain and windstorms. Even the mountain tops are capped with white icing. We are to expect more of these storms in this El Niño year.

Fortunately so far our neighbourhood has not had the severe flooding nor power outages that are sadly happening in many areas of the Pacific Northwest, despite a warning flicker now and then. The storms are of course stronger over open coastal regions often forcing cancellations of ferries and small plane flights. This happened to dear friends from Victoria visiting us last weekend which meant they had to spend the night with us, and a pleasure it was.

I wish all friends and readers a happy and safe pre-holiday period! We hope that no storms affect your holiday plans. More later….

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by Marja-Leena

frost stars

11:35 am in Canada and BC, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

tiny little silver stars in the hundreds,
as if fallen from the night sky
like pixie dust

It amazes me how different frost patterns can be.
It is now even colder and drier, down to -6C (21F) last night.
At 10:45 am, the sun’s low sideways rays had not yet thawed them.

Last week’s frost followed a long rainy period.
We Vancouverites need a reality check about cold.
It was -36C (-32F) in southern Alberta last night.
Husband is on his way there on business, brrrr!

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by Marja-Leena