Pictures of the Freezing Fog Aftermath

Got your attention there, didn't I?  Was it the freezing fog?  Aftermath?  The promise of pictures instead of poring through my tedious prose?  

Starting at midday yesterday the whole Red River Valley (which includes Grand Forks - this is your geography lesson for the day) was under a dense fog advisory.  The last week or so has seen very mild temperatures, and yesterday we had some "warmer" southern winds that crept up and created the dense fog.  During the day this was cool, and quite odd since that type of fog is rare around here, but at night the temperatures dropped well below freezing again, meaning that whatever the fog touched, it stuck to.

We woke up in the morning to a scene even more dramatic than after a big snowstorm.  In stead of white snow everywhere, everything was coated in fine white frost, the trees look like they have bright white leaves, it looked very cool indeed.  A world that had been turned into Frosted Mini-Wheat Land.   

In following my standard opearting procedure, I waited until the normal job-having folks left for work before I ambled out in my own yard and snapped pictures like a tourist.  I feel as though this is a good policy to have in order to help the acclimation process and so Alycia and I don't look like, well, like folks who fell off the proverbial turnip truck from California. Unfortunately I stepped out the front door and who's standing on the sidewalk, but our neighbor from across the street.  Luckily he was taking pictures too and said that he'd never seen anything like this before, which made me feel better about snapping pictures on my own sidewalk. 
   
Here's a picture looking down our street to the west, taken from the front sidewalk. 

The other street, pointing north with some frosty trees. 

This is the view from the balcony, towards the southwest over the driveway.  It's hard to believe, but that huge pile of snow to the left of the tree is my garden area.  Seriously, in a few months there's gonna be all manner of green things growing there.  Hopefully.

 More frosty treetops.

I'm gonna wrangle up the pooch in a bit and walk out to the park for a National Geographic-esque photo expedition.  The trees are denser there and should have some more dramatic pictures.  Now you'll have to come back tomorrow and see what photo journalistic excellence I have captured.