We had a magical sight outside yesterday: near freezing temperatures combined with a slow, steady rainfall had produced a thin layer of ice on everything. Tree branches, bushes, lampposts, street signs and even individual blades of grass were all transformed into china-shop glass treasures. Combine this with the recent warmer-than-usual weather and there were plenty of tree buds encased in shimmering ice. And the temperatures and rain continued all day, leaving plenty of opportunity to experience the sights all around town.

I was able to grab a snap of a maple tree in our yard with my cameraphone and upload it to flickr:

Iced Buds{width=”400” height=”500”}

As I looked, I found that I was not the only flickr user around town that grabbed the moment. So, rather than trying to describe the scene, I could just show people all of the pictures on flickr. I searched for “Ann Arbor”, and then using advanced search restricted the dates of the photos to only Monday, January 15. Here’s just a few of what I found:

[http://flickr.com/search/?q=Ann+Arbor&s=int&d=taken-20070115-20070115&z=t|Here’s the whole bunch, sorted by “interestingness”, for you to see for yourself.]

Flickr is such a great tool. The day after a local event, I can do a quick, simple search, and be able to find tons of wonderful, artistic photos to remember and share with anyone else in the world.

Update:
I’m also finding some [http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2007/01/michigan_power_.html|local] [http://www.mlive.com/aanews/latest/index.ssf?/mtlogs/mlive_aanewslive/archives/2007_01.html#225870|stories] of those upon which the [http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/116887580724340.xml&coll=2|weather] has had less pleasant [http://arborupdate.com/article/1367/a2-power-outages#c015494|effects]. I hope they were still able to find some [http://flickr.com/photos/murtasma/358870186/|sights to enjoy] in contrast.