My garlic is up. There are buds on the trees. A single day can have sunshine, rain, snow, graupel, and hoarfrost. It must be spring. The hoarfrost pictured above was particularly lovely—its uniform crystalline spikes sprouting from every surface. The landscape glittered beneath the bright blue sky.
I’ll miss the tranquility of winter’s palette. The indigo blue of the mountains peeking through their snowy white blanket and providing the perfect backdrop for yellow fields of stubble. Green is waiting in the wings for soon everything dormant spring will spring to life. For now, I’ll enjoy winter’s final offerings of crystalline formations.
it's (almost always) about the water... 
My brother-in-law woke up on his 7th birthday to snow (his birthday falls in winter). This is family legend. Who on earth gets that lucky in Southern Africa? As for graupel and hoarfrost, those could be names for an ancient uncle and hold no meaning for us. Living here makes your winter finds up north all the more spectacular in their pattern and delicacy.
Wow, that would be wild! graupel looks like fertilizer pellets. I’ve been pelted by it on numerous occasions.