Tag: Snow-shoeing

Winter’s Beauty

Valley Grove is a special place…two historic churches on top of a hill, surrounded by a cemetery and some lovely pine trees and oak trees…

The two historic churches at Valley Grove.

There was an old, old oak tree that stood in one corner of the cemetery, providing shelter and shade for many gravesites, but it blew down in a 2018 tornado. That was a sad day.

This stately, old oak tree stood tall in the corner of Valley Grove Cemetery. This photo was taken months before it was felled by a tornado.

Valley Grove remains a place of beauty…in any season. And one I like to visit often.

Winter’s beauty.
A sweeping prairie view.

I was recently snowshoeing there on a bright, sunshiny day, after a morning of hoar frost that shed its shards onto the freshly fallen snow causing them to sparkle in the sunshine, making us feel like we were walking through diamonds. It was stunning. 

A bit of hoar frost left on this twig.

We walked for a couple of hours in the glistening and untouched snow, creating paths through the prairie land and into the woods.

Into the woods.

We noticed several varieties of animal tracks crating their own paths and sometimes leaving us to wonder what the animals were doing…dancing I’m sure, in the wide open spaces while no one was watching.

So peaceful, so picturesque.

A Week in Winter Wonderland

Last week it snowed one day, and then another, and then another and for some reason the snow mostly stayed on the tree branches making the world around us a winter wonderland. For me it was breath-taking. Everywhere you looked the trees were frosted. I tried to capture a few photos.

The first snow – ice crystals clinging to tree branches and glistening in the sun.

The second snow – Evergreens along County Road 9.

Second snowfall – we went snow-shoeing on French Lake.

Overlooking fresh fallen snow on an open field.

The third snow – walking in vehicle tracks on Crystal Lake.

Chunks of ice carved out of Crystal Lake, preparing a hole for a polar plunge (which we did not stay to watch.)

Continuing to walk all the way across Crystal Lake.

Into the woods on the other side of Crystal Lake.

A lone pine cone hanging on to a snowy branch.

Stunning beauty all along the Highway 3. I can only imagine what it would look like with blue skies.

Every branch (and every tree) is covered with snow.