Posted By FarmerJ on January 19, 2010

We were blessed with some spectacular scenery a few days ago.  One evening last week, we had some fog set in.  The temperatures were conducive to creating a strange phenomenon to us transplanted desert dwellers ~ freezing fog.

When the water droplets in fog freeze, it creates rime.  There is soft rime and hard rime.  Now, I’m not sure which rime enveloped the Prairie Farmstead because, frankly, I was not willing to bundle up and traipse through the snowdrifts in order to closely inspect the formation of these ice crystals ~ but it sure was pretty, whichever it was.

We woke up to a dark, wintry sky but everything was radiant with these fabulous white crystals.  The photo above shows the Mulberry trees nestled on the west end of Darling Husbie’s shop.  We lost one Mulberry tree in the shop disastrophy.  We’re hoping we don’t end up losing this big boy, as it got pretty scorched from the extreme heat.  We’ll see come spring time.

This is the view through the Cottonwoods and Maples to the Mulberries located on the west side of the square foot garden plot ~ it’s hard to tell because of the snow drifts, but that’s part of the slough just on the other side of the tree line…the slough divides our ‘yard’ from the alfalfa field.

Finally, around noon, the fog burned off and revealed a spectacular blue sky.  The sun shone brightly and the crystals were glistening brilliantly.  The sparkles made you squint and your eyes water!  Here’s the Mulberries by the shop again.  Quite different from when we woke up; so much more cheerful!

And, here’s the same shot toward the square foot garden after the fog burned off and the sun came out.

There’s one thing certain about Nebraska ~ other than the craze over football ~ the weather is never boring!

Categories: Plainly Ponderings
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