Getting the drop on cold weather

Freezing rain over Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day resulted in Mother Nature decorating the forest trees with her own version of lights and bulbs.

Last Sunday's sunny skies illuminated the drops to where they appeared like sparkling diamonds. I tried to capture their brilliance in photographs, but the pictures didn't due the scenes justice.

I was surprised by the amount of solid rain drops on the branches. I was also thankful that we still had electricity during the icing event.

As I tried to get some single drips in focus, the branches started to shake. I was then abruptly butted out of the way by one of the goats who decided that my interest in the icy shrub was apparently food related.

The drops survived over the weekend until more mild temperatures and the warm sunshine undecorated the trees.

Weeks earlier the neighbor's pond sported some geometric ice patterns. I turned to the internet to define the science behind the shapes.

"The crystal lattice of ice is hexagonal in its symmetry under most atmospheric conditions," said a post on the American Meteorological Society's site ametsoc.org.

The post went on in great detail to describe the science behind ice crystals. My eyes started to glaze over and I suddenly wished I had paid more  a lot more attention in chemistry class.

I decided to just stick to taking photos of ice crystals instead of trying to explain them away.

Meanwhile, last Saturday's temperatures were so cold that my camera didn't even want to work. It kept showing me error messages. It was literally froze up.
 It was what I have dubbed "two pair" weather. To cope with the frigid temperatures, I don two pair of pants, two pair of socks and two pair of gloves. I also have several layers of shirts and jackets and a hat covered by a hood.

The bitter cold put the damper on most woodland activity over last weekend.  ​

On Christmas Day, the forest was relatively quiet. Nothing seemed to be moving due to temperatures in the teens. Squirrel tracks traveled only from one tree to the very next. No deer signs were spotted. However by Saturday, there were some heart-shaped tracks dotting the landscape.

Earlier last week some of the dear furry forest creatures were busy taking selfies on the trail camera. The results were amusing. Not amusing however, was the fact that the deer changed my camera position and part of the trail was not covered in the camera's range.

The bird feeder was busy Christmas Day throughout last weekend as the snow pack drove flocks into the yard. Some pine siskins visited again, though not in the numbers seen months earlier.

A female cardinal was especially cooperative and posed for several photos.

The tame critters seemed to take the biting cold in stride. The dogs seemed to pay the chilly temps no mind and continued plowing through the snow. The goats handled the weather with their usual disdain.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.