A silver farewell of 2012

Today the 2012 year gave us a beautiful farewell present: early morning hoarfrost. The view of the silver mountains and forest was magnificent. Grass, every tiny branch of trees, red berries - everything were covered with silver crystals. The chemical process of this phenomenon is rather simple: the soil is not frozen, and microscopic drops of water in the low lays of the air were crystallized for about two hours  by the light morning frost. However, it happens rather rarely as it requires a cobination of factors: warm soil,  cold air, flat slopes.                                       

We were lucky to have some time to take pictures. Just enjoy !

UnWinter colors

What colors do you imagine while speaking about Winter?  The very word “Winter” always associates with white snow, blue ice, green Christmas tree, orange mandarins, red berries of holly (or ilex). This images emerge from our childhood. However, Winter can be quite different from this bucolic pictures. The snow melted, leaving only grey spots somewhere under trees, trees didn’t drop their foliage, green ivy continues to climb trees about twenty meters high. And the sky… it’s not cold blue or black, but golden yellow or terracotta as a fire.

Beadwork of a 13 year old girl

Beadwork in Europe has a history dating back thousands of years, to when shells and animal bones were used as beads in necklaces.

Today beadwork is a  sophisticated hobby. Beads are applied to decorate purses and many other lovely accessories, in bijou and jewelry design. Now a great variety of techniques and materials are used. Here are photos of bijou made by Yoko, 13 year old girl,  who lives in Vyborg, a city not far from St.Petersburg.

Winter paradoxes

Nature is full of paradoxes.

What is it – late Autumn or early Spring? Light morning hoarfrost on red briar berries,      green spots of moss  in brown oak leaves surrounded by snow, green and yellow rocks in the sunlight, melting snow in ravines and a multicolored sunset.  The real time when the pictures were made is late December three days before Christmas.  

A Christmas thaw

A rescue from the snow silence

  For several days we lived in a snow silence, all the area was covered with a thick snow. We lost the Internet link and our food was coming to its end. We were trying to dig our way through the snow to the village, however this goal looked practically unachievable. Rather unexpectedly a team of local folks came to rescue us and made a snow road to the local civilization!  

The next day after the snow storm. The Balkan mountains

The next day after the snow storm was quiet and bright. We are cut from the nearest village and our position is far from being excellent. However, we enjoy this  life in our remote house. We made photo of the magnificent landscape around before the snow begins melting.