Icy Lace

The cold beauty of our first winter snow is especially lovely as you see it here--captured in the icy lace of the curly willow trees near our home.

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A few hours after I shot this photo, the silver thaw began in earnest, covering everything with nearly an inch of ice.

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We heard burdened trees and branches breaking, popping and crashing all around us. One big oak tree lost a huge limb, which fell onto a nearby home, crushing down through the roof into the room below. Thank God no one was hurt.

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I had a bad fall myself. I accidentally stepped onto an invisible patch of ice on the cement steps of our front porch. I have been very sore since I fell, but that doesn't matter as much as the fact that my beloved camera broke. I would appreciate your prayers. It is silly, but when the camera broke, I felt like I had lost a part of myself.

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Next week, I will see how much it will cost to either fix or replace my camera. Though truthfully, right now we cannot afford to do either.

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However, though I grieve over the loss of my camera, I am also grateful for the wonderful photos I was able to shoot before I broke it. I haven't looked at all of the pictures I took yet. In fact, the photo you see here is one of the first I've seen--I am so excited to discover what other imaginative images I was able to catch.

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The truth is, if one looks hard enough, even when bad things happen, there is always something for which to be thankful.

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Happy New Year, and God bless you dear friends.