Update from the Lake: Hardly Any Snow

It's true that there hasn't been hardly any snow around the west since sometime before Xmas; nevertheless, when I was at the lake most recently, I went walking around looking for signs of winter. I found a few.

I found frozen drops hanging on pine needles.

Ice crystals above a background of thin snow in the shadows.

More frozen drops.

More!

And more!

I became enamored of trying to get photos of the colored sparkles -- tiny prisms of light -- being given off by the frozen drops...

...and found I could really only do it with colored sparkles that were out of focus.

I could also see little glints and colored sparkles in the snow, but these were less spectacular and harder to photograph. Here's an explanation of the occurrence of these rainbow colors when seen in snow (with a guide on how to photograph them!).