Baby, it's Cold Outside!!

Lately we have had some cold weather!! The other night, when I took this, everything was frozen over. I walked outside to get some photos, and the entire ground was covered in tiny sparkles, like it had been sprinkled with glitter or diamond dust. It was so cold, the air was almost painful to breathe.

I wish I could show how everything glittered. There was a thick white coating over everything, and the edges of leaves and blades of grass looked like they had been frosted. One of my flickrite friends who lives in Western WA also, took this amazing macro of a leaf he found:


I've been hoping for some winter weather; we were supposed to get a bunch of snow the other night according to the National Weather Service's Seattle office... and it did actually snow a little. I went out and took some photos while I could; like this one, using a long exposure and flash

and this one looking straight up at the sky with my flash.

I have more, but they're still sitting on my computer waiting for me to go through them.

I really wish we'd get some good winter weather now. It's been nice to get all snuggly in warm coats and scarves and hats. After a long, hot summer, I was actually looking forward to this. Even though there are parts of winter I dislike (mostly after it's been around for a good while, and especially when it consists of nothing more than grey skies and rain) there are many things I love about winter. I love when it snows. I mean, how fun is it to watch the soft white flakes fall from the sky? If you sit there long enough, you can almost get dizzy from it. And the snow covers everything like a soft blanket, hiding the ugliness of the earth and mud and smoothing the jagged edges of rocks and sticks. Kind of like what God does for us, when we come to Him... smoothes out our rough edges, and covers up our ugliness with His beauty.

I can't wait to see what we get tomorrow. According (once again) to the NWS-Seattle we've got a "Winter Storm Watch" for Thursday. Doesn't sound like much though:
"...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM PST THURSDAY THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING..

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE PUGET SOUND AREA FROM 7 AM PST THURSDAY THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING.

RAIN AND SNOW WILL BEGIN THURSDAY MORNING AND CHANGE TO MOSTLY SNOW BY AFTERNOON. ONE TO THREE INCHES ARE POSSIBLE DURING THE
DAY...WITH ANOTHER INCH OR SO POSSIBLE THURSDAY EVENING. SOUTH WIND IN THE EVENING WILL WARM THE AIR ENOUGH TO CHANGE ANY
PRECIPITATION TO RAIN.

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR SEVERE WINTER WEATHER."

We had a Severe Winter Weather (or something like that) warning for the other night, and it only snowed for a couple hours... and then a bit more in the morning when my husband left for work. By the time I got up though, all the snow was melted, and it was clear and sunny all that day. (Which, I think, was yesterday. ;) So who knows. I've heard that the chance the forecast is accurate is something like 48% (or maybe it's 52%) - so it's not like I'm holding my breath. But I can still hope, right? ;)

You can be sure if we do get snow, I'll be right there with my camera, snapping away! And hopefully this time my kids'll get to play in it. They were really looking forward to building a snowman... this time, I hope they can.