Monday, December 7, 2015

Fog and Hoarfrost, December 5, 2015

It was foggy and 27 degrees Farenheit  when Jeanne and  I set out on our morning walk.

Jeanne noticed this sapling looked as though it was hung with icecyles like the ones we sometimes hang on Christmas trees.  When I gently touched my index finger to the bottom of an "icecyle" it vanished.


A few steps later, we saw this.


Clearly, it was an orb weaver's spiderweb covered with hoarfrost.  It looked like the crocheted doilies my grandmother made.


At the falls, the park staff had draped a swag along the protective barrier.


Trees, rocks and the water pouring over the falls were obscured by the fog.

As we walked along, we saw webs made by spiders other than the orb weavers.  The spider who made this web makes it close to the ground.  Then it sits in the hole close to the center and waits for dinner to drop in.


This spider is more of a three-dimensional artist or maybe a spider interested in architecture.  The web has walls and a floor.


We saw webs drop and disappear before we could take photos of them.  We saw web lines drop and turn into miniature icecyles.

We were walking in a wonderland.

On the hill top of the prairie between the creek and the pond, the Monument Plant (American Columbo or Swertia caolinensis)  seeds were edged with frost.




Other seedheads covered with hoarfrost....





  






To really get a good look at these beautiful works of nature, click on the photos and enlarge them.

1 comment:

  1. Those frost covered webs are beautiful! Looks like you had a fun time taking photos! :)

    ReplyDelete