During a hike on New Year's Day, with no snow but a sub-zero temperature, the Elf decided to pose for a few pictures in the shadow of a huge uprooted tree- its root system and earth torn up off the granite when a hurricane toppled it.
"When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,
The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,
In windless cold that is the heart's heat,
Reflecting in a watery mirror
A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.
And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,
Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire
In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing
The soul's sap quivers."
-from Little Gidding, T.S. Eliot
My kudos to Elf for braving the cold!