In the past I have thought of winter as a colorless season—with everything dormant, sleeping, cold, harsh and drab. This year I have seen winter with new eyes. 

The first I noticed was the view outside my kitchen window. The snow is deep here and it has covered the brown earth for well over two months now. Just before sunset, when the sun is low in the southwest, the landscape outside my window is transformed.

The dimming sunlight of early evening reflects off from the snow that has settled into the landscape. The previously white snow becomes tinted with blue. The contours of the plowed, uneven land are reminiscent of gently rippling waves and the view outside my window is transformed from a bleak, cold wasteland into a quiet lake of icy blue that seems to float outside my window.

 

Since then I have been looking for color in places where I had previously assumed there was none.  

Earlier this week, with camera in hand, I took a short walk to document the color of winter I could find. Below are a few of the photos I took.

What I learned from this simple exercise is that winter has it’s own beauty when one takes the time to see it. I also learned that a wide range of color lives on through the cold, frozen season.