Icicle Close-up
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Feel Good #Frosty

Strange post title, eh? As an optimist at heart, I feel it is my duty to spread positive energy while February is keeping things frosty around here.

Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter on Feb 2nd’s Groundhog Day…sigh…

Frost or things that are FROSTY is our Sunday Stills theme this week. For our snowbirds, we still have plenty of frosty images to share whether we like it or not. For those languishing in the southern hemi’s summer, have you had a frosty cone lately? I can eat ice cream all year round!

Ice cream scoop in cup
Would you like a taste?

Let’s start with this “last on the card” photo I took on January 31st.

January's Never Ending Frost Last-on-the-Card
January’s Never-Ending Frost Last-on-the-Card

Looking back to two years ago this month, February 2021 was our first full month living in the RV while waiting for our home to be ready. Not much else to do back then but snap photos.

Whitewashed world
Frosty view from our RV window

This last November, our first snow fell abruptly on the 7th. The day before we had taken a drive to see the Autumn leaves and colors. And just like that frosty weather was here!

2022-11-5 Western Larches in Autumn
Western Larches in Autumn
Winter fun with dog and 4WD

Flash Frozen Flora

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Freezing rain and snow bring a frosty, unearthly beauty to flowers, leaves, and trees.

Last Autumn Leaf Frozen in Place
Last Autumn Leaf Frozen in Place
Daffodils in the snow
Unhappy frosty daffodils
Frozen Willow Trees
Frosty red maple leaf
Frozen Autumn Leaf

“But frost, like the crystallized dreams of autumn, began to coat the clearing with its sugar glaze.” ― Victoria Logue

Flash Frozen Fences

These frosty fences were gifted to us during Thanksgiving week! Just in time for my stepdaughter and her hubby to arrive from Arizona.

Frosty Fence
Flash Frozen in One Afternoon
Frosty chain-link Fence
Frosty Fence Close-Up

Not So Flash-Frozen Dog

Nothing stops Brodie from fetching the ball. He LOVES the snow and cold, frosty air.

Brodie and Frosty Ball
Brodie loves the snow
Brodie and frozen ball

Frosty Danger

“October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The featured image shows a frosty icicle. This one shows the huge icicles attached to our satellite dish.

Satellite dish icicles
Satellite dish icicles

While these are quite beautiful, this kind of ice can be dangerous to your home. Icicles and ice that form on the edges of rooftops freeze, melt, and freeze again, causing ice dams to build under the eves of your roof. This can lead to cracked drywall and water damage inside the walls of the home. Hubby was up on our roof with the snow shovel and spent two days clearing off the 12 inches of snow and breaking the built-up ice. We’re told heat tape placed inside the roof gutters and other strategic locations on the roof can minimize this problem.

Frosty Monochrome

I was inspired by two monochrome challenges this week. Every week, Bren of Brashley Photography hosts Mid Week Monochrome in which I have only recently taken part. Patti, this week’s host of Lens-Artists, challenges us to find shadows and reflections within monochrome images. My featured image of the dripping icicle demonstrates monochrome.

And with that, I also give you, a frosty Grand Canyon:

Grand Canyon South Rim ViewFrosty Grand Canyon

I used the Painnt filter app to create both images, which enhanced the shadows on the canyon walls.

Photo Challenges this Week

Each week I am inspired by my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I enjoy incorporating these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

This Week’s Featured Bloggers

Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their FROSTY photos. I add these all week as new links are posted.

“Despite the heart-numbing frost, my soul is blooming like spring.” ― Debasish Mridha

What is FROSTY is your part of the world? Please share with any creative ideas you have. Next week is the monthly color challenge–RED.

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119 comments

    • I snapped those poor daffies up in Lake Tahoe a few years ago when a flash snowstorm hit the conference center where I was staying. I’m sure they were surprised and hopefully bounced back! AS for our roof–being a MFG home the slope is shallow and we have a snow sled that pushes the snow off. Our neighbor’s rental across the street didn’t fare well and had a major water leak in their front room 😦

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  6. Love those photos of Brodie. Flynn enjoyed the little snow we had to but it wasn’t deep enough really. I can’t remember the last time I saw an icicle! A great selection of photos, Terri.

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  8. I love daffodils, whether they look happy or sad! You’ve had worse weather than us – we’ve had no snow at all, although more northern parts of the UK have. Hope the weather warms up for you soon, Terri.

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  14. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me NOT to have many images of frost Terri! Our once annual frost (usually) was in my post a week or two ago and I hope not to see another one! As I type I’m awaiting the arrival of John Steiner and his wife who are paying a visit on the way to visit their son – how fun is that? I know you’ve met him as well. Glad you had a shot for our challenge this week. I loved your choice and much prefer the monochrome version to the color. Terrific. Enjoy the frost, I’m sure you’ll appreciate spring that much more!

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    • Thank you! Glad you liked the monochromes. Frost and snow are acquired tastes for sure, Tina! I enjoy the cold air and Spokane is a great place to live because it is dry (alpine/high desert) most of the year, little humidity, and we usually don’t get this much snow in a season. Spring will be here in a few weeks and as long as we have a few bright sunny days thrown in, winter go quickly! How fun to meet up with John–tell him hello!

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  16. That is so lovely, the sun and shadows for your Last Photo Terri.
    Won’t be getting many frosty photos or even ones that may look a bit chilly from me this week. Most days have been in the low 30’sC with the occasional day hitting 37C, it’s me who melts 🥵
    Love the snow dog and flowers. The Grand Canyon slider is so good.
    My gutters are leaf collectors so I need someone to clean them out. Can’t imagine shoveling snow off a roof. What is a MFG home?
    Ice cream is all year round of course.
    PS The editor in me says eaves, sorry

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    • Thank you, Brian! Glad you liked the frosty show this week (again). 🤣 it’s now been 3 years since we visited the Grand Canyon, all before covid. Yep, shoveling snow off roofs is a thing. Sorry, MFG is my short for manufactured home, some are called modular. Many models tend to have less roof slope for some reason, no attic. Well when you get too warm, be sure to have a cold drink or ice cream for me!

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  19. I love frost on grass and windows and trees, Terri. It’s so beautiful and sparkly. When I lived in Vermont we had ice storms that covered the whole forest in glass (like your forest of frozen trees). Lovely winter photos, my friend, and beautiful quotes.

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  20. Whoops! Once again I typed my comment in the “Subscribe” box. Sigh. Here it is in the proper place and then I have to get ready to go to my niece’s wedding.

    Love that frost set of plants about midway down, Terri. Frosty here usually isn’t but a couple of days last week there was some frost on the grasses in an area near the canal but lower. Of course once the sun came up, that was the end of that. But it made me quite happy to see and happy it stayed there and didn’t hurt any plants in our yard!

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    • Oh no, I can see how that could be a problem, and I have done it before myself submitting a comment in the wrong spot! Thank you for your kind words and taking the time to leave the actual comment 😉 Of course, all the trees, grass and plants go dormant under the layers of snow and pop out in the spring. We have been careful to plant only flora that is native to the alpine/high desert area we’re in. Hope your niece’s wedding was fun!

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  21. Beautiful Terri! We don’t get icicles too often here but I remember growing up and pulling icicles down and eating them…lol. The photos of freezing rain were gorgeous. I love those trees. The columbia river gorge has some crazy cool looks during freezing rain but unless you live there it’s hard to ever see in person because it’s obviously not safe to drive in it.

    https://troyerslovinglife.blogspot.com/2023/02/taking-in-life-around.html

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  24. I feel like here in Michigan we dodged the extreme cold bullet. It was cold, but we weren’t below zero, except with the windchills. Maybe it’s just that I didn’t have to go out that day so I didn’t notice. We certainly weren’t as miserable as they were to the east of us. And we had 3 days with partly sunny skies! I don’t mind that we have 6 more weeks of winter…we ALWAYS have long winters.

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  25. Hi, Terri – You captured ‘frosty’ magnificently! I especially appreciated looking at your pictures of winter while the sun was shining and our weather was a balmly 19C! Those darn groundhogs – why did they need to see their shadows. 😀

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  28. Ah, ice cream! I even eat it in the winter, though I much prefer it as a summer treat. Sometime in my blog, I’ll tell the story of the banana split I ordered on our just completed cruise and how the story ended with a half-dozen chocolate-covered strawberries as an apology from the cruise line. >grin<

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  32. HI Terri, I love your frosty pictures. We don’t get anything like that here. Our area doesn’t really get any frost at all. We had a very bad hail storm in December which did a lot of damage. Even those are quite rare so we aren’t well equipped to deal with them.

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    • Thank you, Robbie! Snow, frost and ice, are not new to me, but I’ve never lived in it. I don’t hate it but our snow started earlier than usual–I’m ready for spring. We’ve learned a lot from neighbors about how to prepare for winters here and making sure we have the woodshed stocked with wood for the fireplace and the generator at the ready.

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  34. Along with Toby and Austin, I love cold, frosty mornings, Terri. We’ve had some spectacular frosts this winter. I’m always surprised how the dogs love the frosts because I think their paws must get so cold. Good to see that Brodie is also a fan of the snow and ice.

    Your winters are lovely, even though they may sometimes be hard work. I’m pleased we’ve had some snow this winter in Wales. It’s been colder than usual which suits me a lot. Our spring flowering bulbs are certainly not as advanced as they were this time last year so spring may be late.

    Here’s my contribution.

    It may take some time to clear the ice and frost off the car’s windscreen, but it makes a lovely sight from the inside.

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    • It’s nice to read someone else enjoys the snow and cold, Hugh. Winter conditions make for fab photos of snow and frost. We keep one of our thee vehicles in the garage (my new Ford), so we’ve gotten into the habit of pulling the wiper blades away from the windshield during expected snow and frost. Learned that trick in Lake Tahoe. Pulling the wiper away from the frozen windshield shortens the life of the wiper blade!
      Wow, that is one cool image of the frost! I suspect spring coming a bit late as well. We planned our road trip south away from any high mountain passes in case of spring snow storms. Thanks for sharing that image for Sunday Stills!

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      • That’s a great tip about the wiper blades, Terri. Some of the locks on our car have also frozen this winter. And even after they thawed, the doors remained frozen shut. I loved it all.

        We’re coming up to the 5th anniversary of the ‘beast from the east’ here in the UK, when the UK experienced 14 days of ice, snow, and record low temperatures. It began at the end of February. Sadly over 50 people lost their lives during the storms. I remember taking the dogs to the beach and seeing the sea frozen for the first time. Austin even went onto it. Thankfully the tide was out, so the ice was shallow.

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  41. Wow, your frosty pictures are so beautiful. I mean really gorgeous. That crystallized leaf is amazing with all the sharp points. There was a point and meaning that came out of your time in the trailer. I love Tina’s comment! haha

    I also saw your gorgeous rose on Tanka Tuesday. I can’t believe we went to the same garden. I had no pictures that came out nearly that beautifully. It was a piece of art. Congratulations, my friend!

    I apologize, I didn’t get your link this week, and I’m working on my post for 9:00 am. It’s after 1:00 am so I’d better get finished – maybe go to bed first. I wanted to check your post first, and voilà – the link!

    Have a great week. Talk to you soon!

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    • Thank you, Marsha! I’m always quite impressed that my 4 year old phone can capture such great close-ups. That rose got some enhancement with the painnt filter, anyone’s rose would have looked good after that 🙂 I hope to get back into Wordless Wednesday posts soon, needed a break. I have several trips into town (still sounds funny) this week so I may call you for a chat!

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      • Awesome. We have an offer on our condo. The inspection is today. We hope it will go through. If it does, we close on the 28th, so lots to do between now and then. I’m packing up all Cindy’s stuff in my kitchen today so I have room for a few of my things, LOL!

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  42. Terri,
    Awesome pictures! I love the image of frozen trees. If the truth is known, I love winter because I enjoy the mornings before the sun rises. Things seem quieter to me, and I can ease myself into the day as the sun comes up. We’re on the road now and in Gulfport, MS where the temperatures are near 70. Quite a contrast to what you’re witnessing. Enjoy! It’s beautiful. Joe

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  47. Winter photos are so spectacular, Terri. From snow to ice to frost crystals it has it all. I do enjoy winter. Though once the beginning of March comes around, I am looking forward to the arrival of spring. The Grand Canyon in winter is so incredible. 😀📸

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  48. Your icy photos are fabulous as always, Terri! Not much frostiness here on this side of the mountains as spring is in the air! I didn’t make it into the challenge this week, as I had too many real-life challenges to handle. Hopefully I’ll be back in the mix next week. 🙂

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  50. Because I’m so behind in Reader, we were having brutal weather when this post published Terri. But, it’s always amazing to me that our snow and ice completely vanished three days later when temps soared to the 40s. Notwithstanding the danger of ice, it sure is beautiful to look at. Your icicle daggers look lethal but are beautiful. We once had freezing rain before I got the roses trimmed down in the backyard. There was snow settled on the rosebush and then freezing rain on the roses and I hurried out to take photos, naming that post “Jack Frost Nipping at Your Rose”. A few hours later, the temps rose and the ice was gone.

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