Macro Monday {Frozen Bluebonnet Plants}

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All the above were taken on January 25, 2014.

Frozen {Again}

On February 7, 2014, I got up around 7:00am and checked outside as usual. There was nothing out of the ordinary. It was a very cold world though - below freezing.

I check the weather again around 10:00 and noticed it was drizzling. There was a fog forming. Still no ice even though it was below freezing.

And then, just before noon - I checked the weather once again and the temperature had DROPPED. I also noticed one lone icicle had formed from the mist/drizzle/rain. I put on my coat and went outside and nearly froze to death. But, I had to take a picture before dashing back indoors.

I checked the weather again around 3:00pm and much to my surprise, the lone icicle tripled!

I also noticed a cool piece of ice formed on a discarded piece of flooring. Water was dripping down from an icicle on the the roof creating a stalagmite like formation.

With this said, I am tired of the cold. It rarely gets below freezing down here and yet, it has at least three different times! And, it went below on the night of February 11th! Sheesh. I believe this is our April -- spring is trying to come and yet, winter does not want to go.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The ice in the shade barely melted on the first day and it refroze again in the night. These were taken on the second day of our freeze -- January 25, 2014.

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Shot with my macro lens.

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Shot with my wide angle lens. Do you think my Rosemary plants will survive? I am thinking not. I had hoped that both my Lavender and Rosemary plants would survive and thrive. I will most likely have to purchase new plants this spring.

Macro Monday {Frozen}

When I got up on Friday, January 24, 2014, I was feeling miserable and very sick with a sinus infection (allergies finally got the best of me). When I walked into the kitchen, I suddenly noticed the world was icy. There were rivers of frozen rain upon the windows.

In spite of feeling awful, I threw on my coat, grabbed my camera, went outside and everything crunched. For some odd reason, I thought of my sister-in-law and warned myself to be extremely careful. (My sister-in-law who lives much further north slipped on ice/snow several weeks ago and broke her arm). I took a brief look at the land and I feared for all the bluebonnet plants. Let us hope they survived. Anyway, I took a few pictures of our farmhouse table which was loaded with frozen rain before I had to call it quits.

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Shot with my macro lens

Those are actually raindrops frozen in their tracks.

I went inside to change lens and then back outside.

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Shot with my wide angle lens.

By the way, I went back outside around 10:30am and the world was still frozen. I checked the temperature and it said 28 degrees (Fahrenheit). It did eventually get above freezing; but, it only reached 37 degrees before it started to get colder. Yes, it went below freezing again overnight. This is extremely unusual for us to see ice or snow down this far south in Texas. The last time we saw snow or ice hereabouts was back in 2011.

Evidence of Snow

On February 4th, We woke up to a world that had snow - real snow - the type that sticks. Granted, this is nothing compared to the insane snow that my family received up further North. But, this is rare for us. There has not been any measurable amount of snow since 1985. So, this was a big deal.

I bundled up and went out the backyard for the sake of photographing the evidence for posterity sake. I'm glad I did because it all seems like a dream to me now - did it really happen?

Cactus

Aguave Americana
By this time, Dan had come out with a twinkle in his eye and said I should go out front because what was out back was nothing. So, I followed him and discovered a white world.

Street View - East

Street View - West



Poor Dan. He actually had to scrap the ice of the windows. And, after all that work, he could not make into the office. There was a layer of thin ice underneath that snow which made it extremely dangerous. It took him twenty minutes to travel what normally takes him about five minutes. And, he heard on the radio the freeways were closed. So, he turned around and came back home.

I later heard that there were 500+ accidents here in this city alone. He did try again after lunch and made it into the office. The freeways were still closed; although, he did see people out on the freeways. Dan thinks these people snuck in through the barrels and/or someone "unofficial" moved some barrels aside. Anyway, the snow and ice on the roads had melted by this time.

Dandelion. Do you think this sucker will survive two nights of a hard freeze?

I do not know what I did here. It was pure accident. But, I'm loving the look of this picture.
Evidence of a critter running wild in the snow. I wonder what it could have been?

Chessie
This was the only picture I was able to snap of her out there. She was just too cute. When I opened the door, she hesitated and her entire body had the look of "what is that"? She often eagerly goes out; but, not this time. Once she was out on the snow, she was just too funny. She violently shook a paw with every step she took.

If my memory serves me correctly, Chessie has never seen or experienced snow in her entire life. She didn't stay out long as she didn't care for it. But, she was stubborn and stuck it out longer than I expected. I should not have been surprised because she loves being outside.

What about Gracie? She was not having any of it. I even went so far to set her out on it. She was like "no way"! She immediately made a bee line for the door and disappeared. I thought that was funny too!

I hope you enjoyed this. I'm am 100% sure that this is nothing compared to what most of you experienced. But hey, this was great stuff for a person like me who rarely sees snow.