January 30, 1999 brought early morning fog that started lifting by 9:00 AM leaving us with a breath taking display of the beauty of nature. The heavy frost clung to everything and made the trees especially pretty. Sandy and I took a few pictures around the house and would like to share them with you. If you would like to see it full size click the button below the image and a small window will pop-up. You can close the new whindow when you are finished.

Looking our West window we had this view of the Locust tree and the American Elm in the distance. This was before the fog had totally lifted but you can see a hint of the blue sky that made this a very beautiful day to live in Iowa. Luckily the breeze was very light and the temperature of about 20 degrees allowed us time to see the frost before it started falling.

Directly West of the driveway we had this unbelievable display of frost on the remaining Willow tree. We cut the back one down late this fall and nearly started on this one. At least for this display I am very happy the chain saw remained in the shed.

We decided to walk down the road a little way to take a picture of the neighbors grove. As we passed this row of Hybrid Poplars that border our North property line. We planted these as bare root stock when we moved here, they were about 10" tall sticks not much bigger around than your thumb.

As in most pictures we take, this just doesn't do justice to the delicate beauty of the frost clinging to the bare branches.

The image below and on the left is another row of poplars that grows behind the machine shed. The drift that you see at the far end of the rows is 7 feet tall, 50 feet long (North to South) and extends to the West for about 50 feet. It completely covers the garden area with over 4 feet of snow.

The picture on the lower right is our favorite. It shows the Spruce trees that grow in an arc shape just North of the house.