Bigger on the inside...

There is something so very magical about frosty mornings and when my children were tiny (about five and seven) I happened to find a blog about freezing bubbles, so now every winter we look forward to doing this. After researching this further, I set my alarm for 3 am - yes, you read that right! - because the forecast predicted a temperature of 25 F that night, which sounded perfect for blowing bubbles and freezing them. Yes, I am sane! I decided not to mention any of this to my children as I didn't want them to be disappointed in case it didn't work. I also didn't mention this to my husband because he would have talked me out of getting up at 3am! I'm glad I did get up in the middle of the night though, because it took about ten attempts before I actually managed to successfully freeze one. I definitely froze before any bubbles did! Apparently, there is a knack to doing this and it involves blowing a bubble, laying it down gently and carefully on a frozen surface and waiting for it to freeze. The effect was exactly as I had hoped and a couple of very early mornings later, the forecast predicted another perfect frost. It was a beautiful, yet very cold, clear morning when my two children and I walked to the bus stop, and they were excited but surprised when I took out some bubbles and even more surprised when I told them to wait and watch. Luckily it only took two attempts for the bubbles to freeze and become almost solid. After a few seconds I told them they could touch the bubbles and one of them cracked and another collapsed. Once my children had left for school I decided to take some photographs but those were the days I just left the settings on auto. Still, I did get some really beautiful pictures. Unfortunately, it hasn't been cold enough this year though I did try to freeze some bubbles one recent morning but I didn't have much luck. I ended up just blowing bubbles instead and I soon realized that everything around the bubbles was reflected - and that's how I ended up with this photograph...

** This photograph is on display at the Wilma W Daniels Gallery, Downtown Wilmington, NC - so happy!