Got a good shot of snowflakes this time...I caught them with my coat's sleeve. See the size relative to my fingertips...Before I saw one in actual, I thought snowflakes were only visible with the microscope (and would often wonder how those who have seen it could see the snowflakes without melting). How wrong I was! However, it's not always this prominent. MOst of the snowstorms give icey snow, or dust-like snow. This time, when the snow was falling they looked like cotton pieces dropping from the sky... 

"Naked" Trees in the Forest

During winter when the forests are naked, it's easy to see through the woods. From my garage I can see my in-law's house. It is actually nearer through the woods than on the road.

This Time of Winter is a Good Time to Plan for the Garden

I have been browsing several catalogues of plants, hopefully to order seeds by 2nd or 3rd week of February, and start the seedlings indoors by the end of the month.

Here's a list of the catalogues that I have on hand:

Johnny's Selected Seeds - (1)(207)(861-3901)

Territorial Seed Company - 888-6573131

Indiana Berry Book & Plant Guide 2005 - 1-800-295-2226 - inberry@pscsi.net

White Flower Farm - 1-800-503 9624

Wayside Gardens - 1-800-845-1124

Parks Seeds - 1-800-845-3369

Burgess Seed & Plant Co.

Direct Gardening

Gurney's Seed & Nursery Co. - 513-354-1491

Miller Nurseries -1-800-836-9630

This photo was taken last year, and that was the first ever snowman that we built...quite emaciated at the limbs, if this were a child it could have been diagnosed with Kwashiorkor! Haha!

Of course with practice one gets better and more imaginative....This is the second snowman we made last year for Christmas. It lasted just one day as the sun melted it away rapidly the next day! Cameras are a blessing to capture such fleeting moments...

Oh...and did we say we got better and better at making snowman? Check this snow boy! 

quite blurry, but this is one photo which clearly shows the 6 sides of a snowflake. There was once an American forumer who sounded so skeptical with my reply to his question about a Filipina's first experience of winter, to which I replied that I had fun seeing the individual snowflakes actually having those 6 sides! However, one has to catch them on a dark background during the initial downpour. Sometimes snow are not fluffy but clumped, so that such individual snowflakes are not evidently hexagonal in shape. Previous to experiencing snow I thought I had to use the microscope to see it, but I was wrong. Each snowflake was clearly visible to the naked eye, about 2-3 millimeters in size. However, sometimes the snow are just formed while the drizzle is falling and the air temperature exceeds freezing, converting the water droplets into ice crystals much like fine dust - no shape... 

This photo was taken during a snowstorm (it was like raining but I had not worry about getting my camera wet. I just had to brush the snowflakes off before they got melted).