The challenge for February is Tutti frutti (all things fruity)

By Milo Smith Well, this was an easy challenge for a change.  We had the last one just completed and, “presto”, we had a little ice storm.  I took these at The Grotto at Bishop and Centre streets.

#1 is a frozen flower head from the summer.  I will have to go back and see what kind of plant it is when they are in bloom and recognizable.

#2 are some little red berries growing just beside the frozen flowers.  Need to suss these out at the same time.

#3 are some tiny icicles hanging from a wrought iron railing.

$4 is a wrought iron railing covered in ice.  The image is in colour but the only colours are black and white.

By Susan Irving My entries for Ice and Snow

An abstract mixed media (sold) called ICE.  It was one of my first mixed media pieces and I miss it. 

This one also sold, painted from a photo I took one February while walking behind the Cotton Mill in Cornwall.

Our first winter storm in PEI. It took 3 days to dig out.  The drifts were up to the second-storey windows.  Pictured here are my husband, Mike, daughter, Tansy and our neighbour, Ivan, having at last dug out the garage. Notice the drift height at the top of the shovel.

Last is a photo taken in January 2023 of any icy scene on the side of my barn.

By Lynne Ayers I haven’t taken any photos of the recent storms we’ve been having but, again, delved into archives.  These were taken in February 2016. I worked with them to crop and enhance nature’s abstracts.

By Susan Latreille I have hundreds of winter photos, recent and old,  but for this challenge I decided to check out some old photos from over 20 years ago when we first moved to Glengarry and see what a little enhancement might accomplish. Here are a few of my attempts at manipulating older photos.

By Bobi Leutschaft Poitras I love snapping photos of nature and winter magic is no exception. These were all taken between January 2019 and January 2023.  I  rarely delete good photos because you never know when they’ll be perfect for a Collectif Challenge!

By Tina Whitman These are my Garden Girls in the Winter.  I love the snow on top of their heads. It reminds me of my Mom and her friends, who went to a home salon across the street.  

I was a very happy 4-5 year old, tagging along to watch the goings on.  I always loved their hair in curlers, nets over their do’s and sitting under the outer-space hair dryers!! 😁

By Milo Smith (redux) We saw snow bales very recently near St Raphaels – had never even heard of them before!

“Also known as “snow bales”, “wind snowballs”, or “snow doughnuts”, snow rollers are formed when the wind pushes fresh, wetter snow along the ground. The end result is a hollow cylinder of snow that can vary in size.

The process itself sounds simple enough, but just like thundersnow, it can be quite a rare winter phenomenon. That’s because the set up has to be just the right combo of snow, wind, temperature, and moisture.

Ingredients For a Snow Roll

There needs to be a relatively thin layer of fresh snow that isn’t too dry or compacted, with a snow pack or icy surface already in place underneath. The snow itself needs to be wet enough that it sticks to itself, but not so much that it adheres to the ground completely.

The temperature also plays a key role. Temperatures right around freezing helps support stickier snow, all while preventing things from melting or freezing too fast. 

Think of snow that’s prime for making snowballs as opposed to snow that’s a pain to even make into a snowball and that just instantly falls apart as soon as you throw it. It’s as if Mother Nature is trying to make its own sushi roll, just out of snow instead of sticky rice.

Just like the moisture content, the wind can’t be too high or low either. As Goldilocks would say, “this wind is just right” to help coax the snow up, and persistent enough to keep that snow moving.” See full article here.

by Kerry Herwynen McIntosh This is a quick acrylic sketch of the  pine tree across the street. The property is for sale now and I know that, when it’s sold, both the abandoned building and that tree will be coming down. 

I was sitting in my studio looking out the window at her and marvelling at the amount of snow she has accumulated this year.

by Isabelle Utovac This photo was taken in November, during the first day of this winter, a dripping icicle on a guard rail of a pedestrian bridge. I did some post-production, obviously, to give it a vintage quality.

Le poème en français, comme la photo, est une réflexion sur le temps, le passé, le présent et le futur.

Photo-poem submission

Snowflake

Every tiny part is fragile

Crystalline, translucent, a singular design

And every line, coincident

Or perpendicular or oblique

And each one is unique

Le glaçon

De l’eau vivifiante qui goutte d’une hauteur stupéfiante sur la route

Il saisit le moment du pourquoi et du comment

Le temps figé,

L’action gelée

Oui, je m’en doute

I really love the sunrises this month. They don’t last long. I tried to capture it here, as well as the fields that still show the tilled mounds covered with a pristine blanket of snow. The view from the evergreen branch is the contrast of snow close-up with snow far away.

by Magdelene van den Oetelaar Here are a few snowflakes that I made out of glass.