a december morning walk

it snowed in the night so i was anxious to get out and have a look. the snow barely covered the ground but on my car windshield there was only ice crystals. if it warms up they will probably melt so i didn't scrape them off. anyway i wasn't going to drive anywhere, just a little walk around town.

there were still a few late apples on my neighbors tree

the bronze horse bronze horse looked a little chilly without a winter blanket

a few people were out before me. it's always so nice when the snow covers the ground, everything becomes suddenly so much brighter that we are not bothered about the cold.

closer to the water the seagulls have been here, along with another bird with an airplane shaped track, presumably a crow

the sheltered cove was frozen. it's always interesting to see the tidal sea ice in the shallow coves here. the surface water has very low salinity because the fresh water from the nearby streams and river floats on top of the denser salt water. in sheltered areas it freezes much quicker than other places but it is still subject to tidal flows. so the ice froze when this flat rock was underwater then the tide went out, cracking the ice around the stone leaving a thin layer of ice on top. if it's freezing when the tide rises again the process repeats and builds up the ice on the stone.

farther out across the cove is Risøya, a peninsula that was once an island close to shore but the water between was filled in long ago connecting it to the mainland. since then it has been the area in town that has seen the most construction of new houses

zoomed in a little. the earliest houses here were built in the 1980s but the ones closest to the water came later

the islands in the distance are about 5 km out to sea. they are a wonderful place to visit all year, but naturally there is little traffic there this time of year