For the third day in a row, we’ve had freezing fog and Jack Frost wasn’t just nipping at your nose, but leaving a trail of icy crystals on the grass, sidewalks and streets.

I suited up anyway, figuring I’d test the sidewalks, and, if there was any slip-slidin’, I’d head right back into the house.

Happily, the ice wasn’t bad along my pathway, so I began to walk.  The freezing fog was really quite beautiful.  It was a tad misty, similar to a heavy fog in Spring or Summer, but, at ground level, there was an almost-iridescent look to the sidewalks and streets.  From a distance, the lawns and grassy areas looked to be covered with snow, but, up close the grass resembled toothbrush bristles – all stiff and white.

I trekked down to the railroad tracks, and, while gazing into the distance toward the Detroit River, I saw how the horizon was very blurry.  I heard the foghorns repeatedly sounding in the distance, and those low bellows interrupted the relatively quiet morning, along with the sound of ice scrapers being worked furiously to rid the car windshields of accumulated ice.

Along the way, plopped atop those frost-tinged blades of grass, were quite a selection of white wire holiday lawn decorations.  Tall, twiggy-looking trees needed no ornaments, as they were already iridescent and the frost crystals made them seem even more delicate looking.  There were gentle-looking reindeer grazing or looking off in the distance, plus several of them were pulling Santa’s sleigh.  The occasional polar bear or penguin, and, of course, the obligatory delicate angel with white metal mesh wings, all seemed to meld into the frosty landscape.

And then there were nature’s own ornaments – rose buds and daisies hanging onto their stems for dear life, frozen in time and appearing as if they had been dusted with a liberal shake of icing sugar.  They reminded me of those delicious Polish deep-fired pastries called “angel wings” that we used to buy at the old Vinewood Bakery in Wyandotte.  They were delicate to behold, yet once you bit into them, they crumpled into many pieces and the powdered sugar flew everywhere.

I decided that the layer of frost that had settled on a pile of crumpled-up, yellowish-brown leaves looked like a gigantic serving of the breakfast cereal “Frosted Flakes”, so, by the time I arrived home, I was ravenous – perhaps it was the long walk on a cold morning ,or … my imagination went a little wild while visions of icing-sugared goodies danced in my head.

[Image by photographer Gabriel Garcia Marengo at Unsplash]