It's Christmas Day and New England was rewarded with a blanket of snow which fell overnight.  It has been quite a few years since we have had snow on December 25th so this was a welcome surprise.  Of course you must take the good with the bad and even though the pure white virgin snow looked postcard perfect, I had to get out there and shovel the snow to clear the driveway and the walkway leading to the porch.  Other than the shoveling, it was an enjoyable and relaxing day.

As if the morning snow wasn't enough, at night I was presented with another "gift" in the form of ice that had collected on some trees behind my house.  Some nearby street lights lit up the ice from behind the trees and created such a dramatic effect that I had to take a photo of it.  The scene was actually VERY dark so it required me to use my tripod and an exposure time of 1 minute and 10 seconds!  The long exposure caused the stars in the sky to appear as little streaks in the night sky.

Happy Holidays to all!
Oscar