Crystal Visions

It was another cold and wintry day, but it wasn't actively snowing for a change, so we went for a hike in the woods near our house. We bundled up warmly: I put on my fleece-lined winter pants, my big Woolrich coat, my Rocky Snowstalker boots, a balaclava, and two pairs of gloves, so I was quite toasty. As the sun warmed the temperatures up in the early afternoon to the low 20s F (about -7 C), it began to feel practically tropical!

We walked all around the gameland, made fresh tracks in the snow (always fun to do, even as an adult), and admired some of the ponds there. They are all covered in snow and ice now, of course. Completely frozen. And at the very edges of some of the ponds, you can find some lovely crystal visions, like these.

The crystals are made up of intricate patterns where the ice and snow were formed, dainty and individual as snowflakes. And if you touch them with a warm hand, they melt, of course, instantly. And just beneath the ice surface: air bubbles, also frozen; and they crackle and break if you step on them. Winter's brittle, delicate, transitory beauties.

The song to go with this . . . Crystal Visions is the name of one of Stevie Nicks' "best of" compilations, and I've picked a song from it to go along with this picture. Even though the tune is not otherwise thematically related, it is one of my very favorites. Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, Silver Springs.