other worlds

[asakiyume]

On a zero-degree Fahrenheit day, the snow, in proximity to wet air, grows feathers. If you crouch down, it's like you're on the back of a great white bird.



Strange crystal islands fluff up out of the ice--an alien landscape.





In this world, blades of grass become arrows, fletched with frost . . .



and stems become slim, velveted trees.

Comments

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how something so inhospitable can be so beautiful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes: I feel like there's a big huge METAPHOR hanging around there somehow, waiting to be acknowledged.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

The light is weird, that cold--and it hurts! I remember that from my two weeks of it, in 1972.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a cold that isn't fooling around. It's playing for keeps--no: it's not even playing. And out into it you go, a little organic internal combustion engine, puffing away.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Amazing how something so lovely can look so sharp, so harsh and, as you say, alien.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes--painful beauty, but beauty, for sure!

thank you!

[vodkanoodles.livejournal.com]

Im the Australian heat wave and have NEVER seen beautiful hoarfrost in person... thank youfor sharing over the internet!

Re: thank you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hoarfrost is absolutely magical, it's excessive in its beauty.

Glad to give you a breath of coolth, even if it's only visual.

[duccio.livejournal.com]

You sure inhabit the most wonderful visual environments, which most of us must be blind not to see daily, all around us.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think you *do* see the wonder, yourself, duccio!

[gwynnega]

So beautiful! I've never seen full-on snow in person, so it's wonderful to see these photos.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow! So you've lived always in a hot climate!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

So beautiful and perilous, like faerie.

Nine

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Definitely, definitely like faerie. Or maybe just: faerie.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Snow feathers. So lovely - they seem to call for a story. Snow does that, it seems to me. As does fog. Perhaps because they both hide things?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hide or transform, yes!

And, I think, because they seem living, though they're not living as we choose to define it.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

So beautiful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

They're like the kinds of mysterious, beautiful things you see under a microscope--only visible with the unaided eye.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Just so lovely!

It's still ridiculously mild here!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Well, no doubt you have mysterious and beautiful mists!

[selidor]

Some of it is like cozy, downy plumage - and then one gets to the dark ripple-frozen pond with the waving weed-fronds caught down below. Eeep.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I always wonder about how fast the ice must freeze--like when you see whole frozen waterfalls.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

so beautiful!!!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think so too!

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of this: http://students.washington.edu/bowmanjs/wordpress/?p=106

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that photo at the bottom is gorgeous! And these are just like that... only tinier. Tiny freshwater versions.

[art-ungulate.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee! Snow feathers!!

We had a frost almost as think as snow, here, this morning.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! Frost seems so organic, rising up from the ground instead of falling from the sky.

[cafenowhere.livejournal.com]

On Tumblr I kept seeing photos of huge ice burrs rising from a frozen sea, with articles explaining the science of those formations. Your marvelous photos show that such shapes are not so rare, only overlooked in more familiar settings. I am having a Dorothy-come-back-from-Oz moment: "if I can't find it in my own backyard, I never really lost it." Thank you for showing off the Oz-adjacent icy wonders.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, intertribal linked to an article with a gorgeous photo like that--like these ones only with each burr or flower much larger than these. But yeah, I'm happy to find wild, freshwater versions of them right here--in a marsh by the side of the road.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

You know it's cold when ice crystals forget who they are and try to be feathers instead. Whew! You stalwart lass, going out in that AND snapping pics.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My kind of very understated bravery: going out in cold weather :D

[dudeshoes.livejournal.com]

OMG, look at that furry cape! Did the White Witch of Narnia shop in your neighborhood?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think quite possibly she did!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Wow! Lovely! We've had a very mild winter so far, with just a few frost swirls on the car. Your pictures aren't quite making me nostalgic, because I'm sure the frost will be back soon enough, but... Very pretty indeed!!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, I suspect you will get your share of frost--but thank you!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

O what beauty you share!

Thank you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Reflecting those sentiments right back at you!

[avalonestel.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, so gorgeous. I'm reading The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip right now, and these pictures your words fit in that world of hers so well. Such beautiful things you find. I wish I could find things like that. I need some beautiful things right now. <3

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What an evocative title!

I'm glad these pictures suit the book--and happy to help contribute to your store of beautiful things (though I hope you're not needing them because things are ugly for you?)

[chanphenglew.livejournal.com]

Amazing to see the snow. I haven't seen fresh snow since 1996. I think I have to go back to the US during the winter sometime.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow! I can't even imagine!