*****
What do you like BEST about winter?
My first thoughts were fire and ice. The fire part goes back to all those years we've heated at least in part with wood (though not in the Virginia years), which meant and means the getting and the stacking and the hauling, but results in a unique sort of warmth that one can back up to. It also involves considerable sophistication in the art of fire making and the sustenance of the artfully-made fire. Tonight will be our first wood fire of the winter, and I definitely look forward to its kindling and management through the night.
The ice part references all the wonderful hours we've spent photographing ice in various forms: Betsy's frost work of course, but also the fun we've both had seeking microworlds (or maybe technically macroworlds) in the ice on ponds at Drift Inn —ponds that have simply been not there in recent years, so we haven't continued to photograph there. Always hopeful for rain followed by a bodacious freeze, to make the ponds reappear...
So here's a Gallery of ice photos:
*****