The fog freeze in yesterday’s picture was actually from December. The actual fog freeze (hoar frost) in Ashland yesterday never did thaw, a first. When I woke up this morning the continuing fog and freezing temperatures had furthered the spectacle. The fog lifted for a bit for the sunrise which I captured here.

Note that this is not a pine tree; nor has there been any snow. The branches on these Japanese Maples are smooth as can be in the winter. The prickliness is completely from the frozen fog. (Maximize your browser and click on the image for the full effect.)

After 36+ hours of continual fog freeze, things finally broke today just before noon. I walked around campus while the trees seemed to be raining. The “rain” was thick though, sort of like sleet. The trees completely gave up all of the frozen fog within about 10 minutes. I have seen snow melt from trees, but this was very different. I doubt I’ll ever see anything like that kind of “tree rain” again.

Posted on January 5th, 2011 under nature. Tags: fog, sunrise, winter. Comments: 1

Several times, since moving to Ashland more than 10 years ago, we have experienced a “fog freeze” where it will get foggy and then the temperature drops to below freezing. The plants and trees turn white until the temperature rises above freezing when the frozen fog that has clung to them melts.

This year the fog freeze has happened at least twice already, including today. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the fog will lift to reveal blue skies. The fog freeze usually melts very soon once blue skies appear so you have to be quick to catch the beauty of the white trees with blue sky background.

I took this photo out the window of my office on the SOU campus.

I’m not sure if this is Rime Frost or Hoar Frost. Does anyone know the difference?

Posted on January 4th, 2011 under nature. Tags: fog, skywatch, Southern Oregon University, trees. Comments Off on Fog freeze

We were planning on arriving home, after nine days in Utah, last night. Snow had other plans for us. We hit a storm just past Susanville, California and ended up getting a room in Mt. Shasta instead.

This morning we headed out of Mt. Shasta on I-5 going north. We were delayed about an hour by chain requirements at the Siskyou Summit on the California/Oregon border.

When we finally arrived back in Ashland, more than 12 hours later than planned, we found our property hadn’t been deserted after all. A family of deer had taken up residence on our back lawn and have not budged even though several hours have passed.

Posted on December 29th, 2010 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: deer, snow, wildlife, winter. Comments Off on Back Home

After dropping my daughter off at school last week, on a very foggy morning, I captured these wild geese in front of the barn near Ashland Middle School. For the same view, on a much clearer day and panned back a bit, see this photo.

Posted on December 20th, 2010 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: fog, wildlife, winter. Comments Off on Wild geese in the fog

Continuing down I-5, the wind was blowing rather fiercely. So when I got closer to Mt. Shasta, I pulled over to take an up-close photo of the snow that was gusting off the top of the mountain.

Posted on December 18th, 2010 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: california, mt. shasta, snow, winter. Comments: 1

As mentioned a week or so ago, I headed down to California last week. The sunrise on the morning of my departure was rather stellar.

The clouds were nice all morning in fact. I’ll show you how they looked with Mt. Shasta (about an hour south of Ashland) later on the same day in tomorrow’s entry.

Posted on December 15th, 2010 under nature. Tags: clouds, skywatch, sunrise. Comments: 1

I haven’t been out of the house in a week thanks to the flu so I’m digging into the archives a bit for this one. It’s been a few weeks since Lithia Park looked like this. For now, I’ll just look forward to spring.

Posted on December 4th, 2010 under lithia park, nature. Tags: autumn, lithia park. Comments Off on Fall foliage in Lithia Park

I wasn’t around to see this bear. My daughter took this picture a few weeks ago. There has been much bear scat in the yard recently so I’ve avoided wandering around outside after dark. It seems this bear was brave enough to do some poking around during the day.

Posted on December 2nd, 2010 under nature. Tags: wildlife. Comments Off on Bear in the backyard

Winter is supposed to come after Fall, but the snow gods and my Japanese Maple didn’t get the memo this year. We normally only get a snow or two that sticks per winter. Usually that doesn’t happen until January or February at the earliest. Last week we received several inches of the white stuff. As soon as the snow finished falling, the maple decided it was time to drop all of its red and mostly orange leaves creating this scene, one we haven’t witnessed before.

Posted on November 29th, 2010 under nature. Tags: autumn, snow, trees, winter. Comments: 2