January: Jack Frost comes to visit our land of multi-colored mountains   I saw something on this chilly morning that I had not seen since I was a little girl. Jack Frost had embelished my car's windshield with a lacey all-over pattern of fragile, beautiful star-like white snowflakes.. When I was a child, we had windows with single panes of glass that did not sport the luxury of weather stripping, Jack Frost would often come to visit us during the winter nights. He would paint these amazing, sparkling, mysterious snowflakes all over our windows. We children were enchanted with the beauty of this wintry wonderland that covered the window in front of us. We would use our warm breaths to make little holes in the scene he had painted, so we could view the world outside - and greet the day. Unfortunately, being a grown-up lady with a doctor's appointment to meet in a neighboring town, I did not have the luxury of admiring the beauty that lay before me for very long. Since I am not accustomed to clearing winter wonderfland works off my windshield any more, I did not even have an ice-scraper in my car. But. ingenuity came to the fore. I went into the house and brought forth a teflon spatula. Then, I unceremoniously removed all that delicate tracery from my windshield, and started my eight mile journey down the mountain. Then, about 1/2 way down the mountain, I was treated to another January sight. When I visited Brevard, several years ago, I (like most tourists) I bought some cards to send to my friends back in Michigan. I was especially drawn to a folder with painted layers of mountains. Each layer was bathed in bright hues, ranging from pink to rose - to light lavendar, to purple, and faintly sporting a misty mauve on the top mountain layer.. I said to myself: "This card is beautiful, but the artist has employed artisitic license to obtain this colorful, beautiful result." The mountains, as I have perceived them through the last few years, were either verdand green in the spring and summer, or bursting with multi-hued autumn colors in the fall, or dusty green and tan in the winter. Occasionally, I did see, during a cold winter, a distant tall mountain that had a white cap of snow on its head. And, sometimes, I beheld the Purple Mountain Majesties. However, today, I got started on my drive down Hwy. 276 much earlier that I usually drag myself out of bed to drive down the mountain, And I saw it! The multi-colored layers of mountains that the artist had portrayed! The sun had been up for a couple hours on its faithful quest to warm our world. The bright sun hung just above the mountains, a big sphere, shining intensely, as it does in this area.. But, miracle of miracles, there were all the beautiful colors, lighting up each layer of the mountains - just as the artist had painted them! What I assumed was artistic license on the artist's part, was an actual portrayal of what lay before me. It was an awe-inspiring sight, and something I had never had the pleasure of seeing before. What a thrilling discovery that was! Then, driving home, just before a huge sun-sphere sank into the back of a mountain, I was again treated to something I had never witnessed before. At this time of year, the woods look so desolate. You are surrounded by a brown, tan, and sometimes black stand of tall leaf-less trees and bushes, awaiting the advent of spring. Then, with the reflection of the setting sun, these dreary sentinels of woodland nature, took on the most beautiful bright rosy pink hue. The woods was simply bathed in this glow. Every thing around me had been transformed in one glorious moment, I had never seen anything like it. It was thrilling and exciting; but in a few moments the radiant color disappeared. It was a symbol to me that God's in his world; and, even though, the worries of the day envelop you, the world is suddenly transformed and you feel the peace of renewed hope for the future of all mankind. Lorraine