Tag Archives: hoar frost

Approaching the Solstice at Ginty Creek

When I first got home from the book tour the weather was cold and mostly sunny.

a yarrow on dunes

Looking down towards the river from the same viewpoint, there were some interesting diagonal shadows.

shadows in diagonals

Then the wind changed.

snow blowing from Perkins Peak

The snow is blowing from Perkins Peak.  It presaged very gloomy weather.

finger peak with backlit frost

Sometimes the sun shone on the mountains, but we stayed under a lid of fog.

a lid of fog

It was under these conditions that the satellite dish installers came.

installing the satellite dish

I have had Xplornet’s satellite internet for a number of years; every few years, they change the satellite, which means having new equipment.  The new Jupiter satellite is supposed to offer a service six times as fast as the one I had before.  Now I can look at something on Utube without having to watch a fraction, wait for a bit more to download, and watch the next bit.  Many video strips froze before they were finished.  Now, it’s almost like high speed.

Once the dish was installed the guys worked inside to make sure the new modems were operating properly.

checking the modems for Xplornet.

Then the low overcast cleared a little.

sun over finger peak

The early sun lit up a striking hoar frost.

backlit hoarfrost

Then one morning the sky was completely clear (the temperature was -23C).

december morning at Ginty Creek

More cloud soon came over, but I walked down towards the river anyway.  it has been a fairly mild winter so far so it was not yet frozen over.

the river, 9th December

But as I was coming home, the sun broke through just before setting.

the little barn at Ginty Creek

The grasses poking through the thin snow seemed to be dancing.

grasses dancing in the snow

They were particularly interesting where the sunlight was filtered by the snow.

sunlight filtered by snow

Sunlight makes a difference to everything.  Even an old coil of barbed wire on a fencelooked attractive.

coil of barbed wire on fence

And my house glowed on its hill like a jewel

house on the hill at Ginty Creek

As I write, there are still glitches in the presentation of this blog but I hope to get them sorted out soon.