Hoarfrost

 Another gift of a cold climate, usually a preface to winter, but still showing the previous season's life, is hoarfrost. Some years we get some, others... well.... say what? These are a compilation of several years past.

It can hang from thin branches still holding catkins snuggled up tight for the following spring when they unfold and fly, starting new lives in neglected spaces.

It can hang from still-green leaves and undropped pickable fruits, like highbush cranberries, just an accent to shout, "We're still here!"

 It can find blossom petals clinging to coneflowers to wrest every iota of warmth and growth before season end, putting it to its long sleep.

It can cover the upper extensions of a cedar branch, and once done, leave it still green to decorate all our seasons for years to come.

It can decorate the dead opened seed pods that were long overlooked but now a multidimentional work of art, pointing out every curve, hollow, niche...

but only now can you see how different is it from its neighbor.

 

It can draw your eye to the sky with its subtle tricks with the light.

But every so often it clings to flat bare places, growing out from them unpatterned to revel in its own heretofore hidden glory!