Happy New Year!

The old year ends with storm and snow. Snow fell last night and during much of today. I wore snow shoes for a last walk of 2009 in the local fields and woods and still sank in shin to knee deep. Without snowshoes or skis progress would be extremely slow and arduous. Trees are weighed down with snow, their branches bent under the load. There was no wind and the woods were silent and still. Passing below the trees I was very aware of the great bosses of snow hanging above me. Lest I forgot twice I heard the sudden, sharp crack of a breaking branch and the gentle slither of the snow falling from it. Once I saw a big clump of snow crash to the ground, creating a cloud of snow crystals. Some of the snow is fresh powder, light and dusty, but some is refrozen, hard and icy, forming heavy blocks that could do serious injury if they landed on your head. I didn’t linger under the trees. The hills were cloud-covered and the sky grey but at dusk there was some colour in the sky and a strange blue light over the land. As has been the case for nearly two weeks now the temperature never rose above freezing. Now at 7pm it’s -4ºC and a hazy full moon hangs in thin, drifting clouds. The forecast for New Years Day is more snow.

Best wishes for 2010 to everyone.

Photo info: Dusk over snowbound Strathspey on New Year’s Eve 2009. Canon EOS 450D, Canon 18-55 IS @55mm, 1/100@ f5.6, ISO 400, raw file converted to JPEG in Lightroom 2.6