While I appreciate how pine trees help to brighten our Christmas season, I have an even greater appreciation for how they help to brighten our world throughout the rest of the year.

Here in the Northland I am especially grateful for them during the dead of winter, when things can get pretty cold and dark.

By holding their green needles when other trees lose their leaves, pine trees provide us with a welcome source of color during a season when much of the landscape is drab and gray.

I am fortunate to have a generous number of pine trees along my daily running and dog-walking routes. They have been especially beautiful the past few weeks, as they have been covered with a white coating called rime ice that is formed when water droplets from fog freeze onto a cold surface.

It definitely has been cold and foggy here in western Wisconsin the past few weeks, which would explain why so much beautiful rime ice is decorating the needles of pines and bare branches of other trees.

During the dark days of any winter this would be a welcome sight.

During the dark days of this winter—what with all of the struggles that our country and world are going through—it is especially welcome!