Like Elsa, from Frozen, came through.

I'm not really a cold weather person, in that, I don't do well in the cold. Since my teen years in Connecticut, getting cold has meant consequences. My hands and wrists swell and get painful, my lips and tongue swell up and I "talk funny." One of my main goals after high school was to move south. I got to Virginia, and loved it, but I wanted more south. North Carolina was a pretty good fit.
But, 25 years ago, I fell in love. And, love brought me back north, so I have to deal as well as I can with the cold.
I don't like cold but I do love winter. The snows are beautiful, and it gets so quiet (when the wind stops). And, as I said in the last blog, I love the permission slip to stay inside, stay home. It's permission to bake- Middlest got a gluten free sourdough starter going for us this Christmas so I just had a piece of sourdough toast with unsalted butter, such a luxury! It's permission to read, to learn something new or more thoroughly. I am wading through a textbook on Equine Biomechanics. It is the topic of our Pony Club Winter Camp, and it is fun to get into the weeds prior to the camp in case our students have questions that need a deeper understanding. It will get into my head when I'm riding too, and open new avenues of training. It's permission to re-arrange rooms in the house. Poor Youngest gets home from school and is conscripted. "I have a few" pieces of furniture to move.... Huz has learned to say "The (insert name of room here) looks great!"
And, winter means some days, you wake up in another world. Coated with snow, coated with ice, back to brown rain or, like today, a magical coating of crystals...freezing fog.
Yesterday it came up to the back of our "Tuinhuis" or garden house, and stopped, giving the impression that the Tuinhuis had a featureless white backdrop behind.
Today, I awoke to the freezing fog all around. School called with a 2 hour delay due to the fog for the second day in a row.
I took my camera with me to the barn for chores, and on the way back to the house shot some photos with cold fingers that were hurting afterwards, but it was worth it!

Freezing fog is just fog. But, it is cold enough that when it touches something it makes a crystal of ice. So, the air is damp to breathe, but not freezing. And the ice crystals coat all.

My dinner triangle is decorated. As is every cobweb and branch. The screens on the porch are no longer transparent.

My little dogwood tree is so pretty against the brick.

Realistic, but still fantastic.

  Youngest headed for the bus stop.

 What is behind the mulberry tree???

Home, sweet home.