Shiver Stabilisation System

I was so cold  and shivering so much when we walked along the river Wear near Durham this afternoon that I could hardly hold the camera still....... which made these pictures a severe test of Panasonic's image stabilisation system. Even dead hogweed umbels are attractive when they're covered in a rime of frost.

I takes more than sub-zero temperatures to stop gorse flowering.

Natural Jewellery

One of the better aspects of winter - frost decorating the last remaining leaf on this wild rose.

A Touch of Frost

At last we've had a photogenic frost. These are the frost-dusted fruits of stinking iris aka roast-beef-plant aka Iris foetidissima. It's a British native wild flower but not, I think, native to North East England. It's an excellent plant for a wild flower garden, holding onto its strikingly coloured fruits all through the winter. My plants are growing on a dry, sunny bank in the garden, under a hedge. Its common names come from the fact that its crushed leaves smell of roast beef - to my nose they have the over-the-top beefy aroma of beef-flavoured crisps. There are some pictures of the flowers here.

Back in the autumn the Norway maple tree at the end of our garden produced a massive crop of winged seeds that are now scattered all over the garden. If they were left to germinate and grow it'd be a forest in no time. They look attractive when they're welded to the soil with frost, though. Frost breaks they're natural dormancy and they'll germinate in late March. It's amazing how far they can travel - on just a moderate breeze I've watched them 'helicopter' 50 metres down the garden then fly over the house on an updraft.

Some very fine ice crystals formed last night - these are on the surface of a sage leaf.

Sparkle and Glitter

Last night we had our first hard frost, so .....

..... the strings of pearls of autumn have given way to .....

... the diamond necklaces of winter ....