01.22.13  What a spell we’ve been in!  Some people have never experienced the phenomenon of hoarfrost or alpine glow and we’ve had both for days.  Whenever the NOAA forecast calls for freezing fog in the mornings and partly sunny afternoons, the magic is possible.  As I was admiring the feathery white crystals coating the trees and bushes this morning, a young buck peered at me between two ponderosa pines.  His downy hair antlers looked exactly like the hoarfrost.  We looked in the eye of one another for the longest time, as if we both knew this was a splendid moment to be alive.

And at dusk last night, I walked out on the frozen ice edge of the lake, waiting to see if the setting sun would alpine glow the Swan Mountain peaks.  I was rewarded.  Just me and the Canadian geese, lowering their wings and smoothly gliding onto the lake, closing down a winter day.