full, fall, fell

There was a late afternoon a few days ago that the birds were in a particular frenzy at the feeder....snow tonight, I wondered?
But the leaves were still bright and hanging on, and it was warm enough that there were 4 frogs sitting on the edge of the pondlet.
Went to bed without building a fire and woke up with a very cold nose. Conditions in the night had created a crystalline frost, the kind that builds little tall towers of jagged reflection on every surface.

On my beloved young hybrid American chestnut, on the plants in the pond and on every bladed surface on the ground and in the sky.



Even as I walked out to enjoy it, the sun was coming over the eastern hill already warming the air to an instant melting point.


In the night, the frost had wielded icy machetes on maple petioles, severing their tenacious connections and soldering the now cracked joints with clear ice. As the sun hit them, the weld dissolved and the leaves where crashing down all around, heavy with their frost, as if a giant were pouring sugar coated cereal over the hollow. The crystals melted into puddles as soon as they hit the rapidly warming ground.
In less than 8 hours, the hollow went from bright to brown, with yellow accents, and it seemed like a good time to put some sweet potatoes in the oven.