Snow Diamonds In The Tree Tops

January 14, 2011

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Good morning. What a gorgeous ride I had to work this morning. It wasn't yet daylight, and the view was absolutely stunning. As much as I am not crazy for snow, I have to admit to it's beauty. Everywhere one looks, it is a stunningly beautiful winter white wonderland. It is truly awesome.

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Last night, I went to bed feeling just fine, and awoke around 12:45 am with a nasty head cold. There was no sleep the rest of the night until around 4:30 am. When my alarm went off at 5:15 am, I shut it off, and promised myself just five more minutes of sleep. The phone woke me at 6 am. My daughter in law was calling from my doorstep. She was here to sit with Tootsie, and now I had to fly around like a nut trying to get dressed and ready to leave by 6:25.

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Please let that not be an omen for how the rest of the day will go. I have already gone through almost a whole box of nose tissues. Ugh!! The last thing I need now is this miserable cold. I don't even know where I caught it! Here's hoping I don't pass it on to the Mrs.

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Now for some new photos. Yesterday morning the sun was shining brightly, and the trees in my yard were glistening with "snow diamonds." There was a bit of wind, and as the branches moved back and forth, the "diamonds" sparkled beautifully. So, of course, out came the camera and the tripod. I took lots of photos of the tree tops through our kitchen window. (It was too cold out to go out in my pj's.)

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This first photo is the tip of a branch way up near the top of the tree. The second photo is an even closer look at this same branch tip. I know the second photo is not the clearest photo, but considering how far away the top of this tree was, I thought it came out pretty good. You can even see clearly the little green petals (? they look like hairs!) on each tiny finger of the limb.

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Next, I thought I would take a full view of this tree so that you could see just far up the top of it really is. I brought my camera back out (without the tripod), and stood in my doorway and just shot a photo of the tree.

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Imagine my surprise when I put the card back in my computer to get the photo of the tree. there was something long and white directly over my tree. (obviously, it was really quite a distance away, but appeared to be over my tree.) The tree that the branch tip above came from is the one directly under the white thing, and the branch tip was way up near the very top.

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I made a close up view of the surprise object, and guess what? It's a meteor (or meteorite, whatever is correct). Look at the two long tails. Oh boy, I was happy as a clam all afternoon over this photo.

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I had taken two photos of this tree at the time, and the second photo showed nothing at all in the sky. This whole thing only took seconds. There were no planes or birds overhead. My friend Su found me the meteor site on line, and I checked it out. My "object" appears to be just that. A meteor(ite). I will have to check again for the correct term.

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Except for this head cold, I am still a rather happy camper this morning. But now it's time for me to get busy here at work. The Mrs. will be waking soon. So till tomorrow, Y'all stay warm and have a fantabulous day.

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Hugs, Edna B.