2nd January 2016 Jack Frost.

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Monday 2nd 31F, -1C, white frost, almost still and variable cloud after earlier, clear blue skies. Left late and  only walked down the road and back to fill the time before coffee and toast.

Nature provides many of the decorative patterns like Paisley and ferns. 

The frost was surprisingly choosy where it lay. All the matted grass verges were snow white. While the sparsely bladed, grass-like crops were largely untouched.

The Head Gardener called me to the conservatory to show me the amazing patters caused by the frost. Difficult to capture, but worth it, I think. I had to darken the images for maximum effect. What the human eye could clearly see was completely overblown with brightness by the camera.

Sun dog forming a rainbow arc around the sun.

Such fern patterns reminded me of my childhood in Cumbria and Scotland. Where the single glazed windows sometimes frosted over in winter. Those were the days of a simple coal fire in the lounge [living or sitting room] with the rest of the house usually unheated. Today's fluffy roof insulation was yet to be invented.

I can still remember the shock of getting into an ice cold bed with cotton sheets. And the pain of first going outside on winter mornings. When my smokey breath was taken away and the moisture in my nose instantly froze. Sliding effortlessly in the playground was always limited to those who had real leather soles. Rubber or composite soles did not enjoy the same degree of slipperiness but were probably safer on the corners, in now distant hindsight.

There has been an absence of frosts this winter so far. So I went looking for interesting images.

Not a frozen, northerly, conifer forest but ice crystals standing nearly half and inch high on the roof of a car.

I need to get moving if I am going out on the trike this morning. The temperature has crept up to 33.3F, +1C at 12am. Left after lunch for a quick shopping trip. Only 7 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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