There is nothing more beautiful than a sunny winter morning when every tree branch, every weed and every wire is coated with sparling, dazzling diamonds. No man-made beauty comes close to matching such a display.

Last week we had mild days with fog and hardly a breeze. In the night, the fog would crystallize on everything above the ground to create beautiful hoar frost. Those ice crystals have enough weight to bend tree branches, sometimes enough to bring them into contact with electric transmission lines.

Last Sunday morning when we awoke, we noticed our clocks with hands had lost a few hours in the night. Evidently the electricity had been off part of the time that we were sleeping. We reset the clocks, got ready and went to church. Everything was fine at church, just a few miles away, but when we got home we saw the clocks had lost another hour. But the electricity was back on, my wife cooked dinner and we ate. Not long after the electricity went out again.

We decided there was nothing else for us to do but spend a lazy afternoon in our recliners. Except that our recliners are both electric and therefore would not recline. So we sat and read for awhile, then the electricity came on again, just long enough for us to recline our chairs and lift our feet up. Then it was off again and there we were.

I was sitting in the chair our children gave us for Christmas, one that will recline and also lift me up to a standing position. Thankfully I do not need that feature yet. I am still flexible and agile enough that when I wanted to get up after a little while I was able to climb out of the still reclined chair.

The electricity came back on around five p.m. and has stayed on. I understand that SaskPower crews spent most of Sunday trimming tree branches. I expect they didn’t appreciate the beauty of hoar frost the same way we did.