Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A fairy tale morning in Robertson.

I told you it would be white! It was like a fairy tale morning in Robertson.
The freak weather conditions of snow, sleet and rain, followed closely by a hard frost, made for some gorgeous images of "snice" on leaves and flowers. It also serves to give me a new weather word - "Snice" A combination of snow and ice. It sounds better that the ugly word "snost".

It seems there was not just rain which fell, and froze, which is what I thought last night. People told me today that there was snow and sleet as well as some rain. This is evident in the granules visible on the lower levels of the windscreen of my little blue car. It obviously did fall as crystals, not drops of rain - which would not build up like that.
Here is Lena - looking cold - on the frozen driveway.
The ice on the water in a spare Rubbish Bin shows you it was pretty cold. Ice crystals always make for pretty images - no matter how mundane the container is.


"Snice" on Sasanqua Camellia leaves
- with the first rays of sunlight just touching the leaves.
"Snice" on Polyscias sambucifolia leaves."Snice" on Wattle leaves (Acacia fimbriata "dwarf")
"Snice" on Acacia flower stem
Close-up of "snice" on Acacia flowers.

Of course, such fairytale crystals do not last long in Robertson. I knew it would be worth looking out for, so I set my alarm for an early start. I then went back to bed to warm up, and to recover from a very long night on the computer. I have today posted an important submission on the Kangaloon Aquifer. More about that later.


7 comments:

mick said...

Stunning photos of the snow and ice but I am very glad I am looking at the photos and not the real thing!

Gouldiae said...

G'day Denis,
You're right, worth putting up with the cold for those images - beauties. Dunno about you though, I'd hate to live in a spot where they have those sorts of temperatures for weeks and months on end. They're OK in small doses I reckon.
I feel for Lena!
Gouldiae

Duncan said...

Enough to make you speak with a squeaky voice Denis ;-) That's really cold, it's a long time since I've seen anything like that down here, and on that occasion I blew a welsh plug in the ute.

Mosura said...

Brrrrr... It's like a summers morning in Scotland. Snice pics!

Denis Wilson said...

Thanks folks.
Mick, your Qld origins are showing.
Duncan - not sure about the connection with blowing a welsh plug, but I retreated to my warm bed after taking the photos - to prevent the squeaky voice syndrome!
Gouldiae, I have a friend in Canada who would laugh at our paltry "snow" efforts. For him, its not real snow until its waist deep. So, in that context I become like Mick, and say "It's pretty, but couldn't live there!".
Denis

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Mosura.
Similar to the west coast of Scotland. Edinburgh and Aberdeen are MUCH colder than we are. Of course, we get much hotter than they do.
But yes, it was cold!
Denis

Snail said...

My fingers are tingling with the cold from just looking at those photos.