Here comes February. For those in the northern hemisphere at high latitude, this short month can be the most bleak of them all. It doesn’t even matter if it’s not colder, grayer, or snowier than previous months. It’s that winter isn’t over yet, and rarely are there any signs that spring is coming.

Fortunately, February has its beauties to compensate for making winter feel endless. While I don’t like finding a hard frost on my car because it means spending even more time in the cold, I do love how it looks. Just last week, I found our car with a heavy frost on the windshield. And the little bird track frost crystals on my window delighted me.

All of which reminded me that many artists, including John Constable, see beauty every where they look, even in things others find awkward, inelegant, or annoying.

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, – light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful. ~John Constable, painter

What about you? Do you find February annoying?