jack-frost morning

After last night's rain and a sudden drop in temperature, the entire world is frozen in perfect beauty this morning like the White Witch hit Wheaton. Beautiful but frigid. Ice lies in sheets across the ground, and each and every plant is cased in glass. Tree trunks, fir needles, grass sheaves, winter berries, twigs and branches alike are perfectly frozen. Everything is fast-melting under the last of the February sunshine, but this morning when the wind blows through campus it all tinkles, chinks and cracks like glassware or wind-chimes. I stuck the back exit open with my book and took pictures around the parking lot after French class - by now the ice is probably half gone. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.