Brrrr!

No, I can't tell you why we still have our Christmas banners up

I know that for a great many of my readers icicles aren't terribly exotic or even much worth mentioning. But for us here in South Texas, they're a big deal!

We experienced much colder than normal temperatures during the recent polar vortex, but then it was dry and we were just cold. 

This last cold snap came with moisture, and so we were treated to the very rare icicle sightings, plus a half day (whole day for some of us) off of work. Since nobody around here knows how to drive on ice. Our neighbors slightly to the north even had some snow, but we just had the ice.

I enjoyed my extra morning at home, and was hoping for some nice photo opps of frost sculptures in our yard. But as it turned out, the ice was just clear and didn't make any nice decorations. The grass was crunchy, though, and I found out after getting the paper that while the ice was almost invisible before being disturbed, where I walked I left snow-like footprints!

ice prints

close-up of ice print

Pretty cool! I wonder which of the Norwegians' (or others') 100 words for ice would fit this particular phenomenon?

 After my pleasant bonus at-home time, I proceeded to strike off across the frozen wastes to the office. 

I was really glad they hadn't given us the whole day off (and also glad I had wimped out and not ridden the bus to work as usual) when I came to Woodlawn Lake. Either they got more rain here than we did at the house, or the air is just naturally more moist here because of the wetlands. But at any rate the ice encasing the trees here was much thicker—and more photogenic—than at home. 

The cold didn't seem to be bothering the lake's usual inhabitants...

....but I was cold enough that I couldn't really stay as long as I would have liked, to enjoy this winter wonderland...

As we're expecting a high in the mid-70's today, we're recovering from the cold pretty nicely, thanks. But I'm glad that at least occasionally we get to sample the joys of winter that are rather ordinary occurrences for many of our friends.