Home»Gallery»Portola Valley Ranch, Windy Hill, Etc.»12/2/2022 Frosty Morning: Eagle Trail to Frog Pond

A cold front moves across our area the night after a soaking rain. Humidity plus cold yields slow-growing frost. Magical! The frost finds subtle details in growing plants and fallen leaves. Discarded leaves sport fancy borders of tiny extended fingers. Veins and small details are noted with sparkling emphasis. Tiny dried flowers become bursts of light, miniature evocations of celebratory fireworks. Crystals of frost take many shapes, from rods to nubs to plates, crowded together on every exposed surface. My neighbors greet the morning, jogging through the rising mist with their dog. As warm sunlight strikes the shaded ground, the ephemeral wonder evaporates.

A walk from Eagle Trail back to the Frog Pond on a frosty morn.