Sunday 15 January 2012

A hint of Winter

We've had such a mild Winter so far that the cold weather this weekend has come as rather a shock. Back to scraping ice off windscreens before heading off to work then...

Although it has been cold, we have had plenty of sunshine and only a light breeze, so it has actually been quite pleasant. Lots of opportunities for photography too!

The brassicas are a hardy bunch, so they will survive much worse conditions than these.

Red Cabbage


Cavolo Nero


Flower Sprout

The Radicchio will also pull through. In fact it quite enjoys cold (but not TOO cold) conditions, which help its deep red colour develop:

Radicchio

The Nasturtiums looked very pretty for one last time. A few hours after I took this photo they were a soggy heap of brownish mush... Still, I hadn't expected them to last into November, let alone January.



The Sage plants looked as if they had been dusted with icing sugar:


Look how the leaves of the Bay trees got edged with ice crystals. They remind me of the salt-rimmed cocktail glasses in which Margaritas are served! Not a very good photo I'm afraid, because the camera didn't seem to understand which bit I wanted it to focus on, and my hands were too cold to persevere until I got the "perfect" shot.

Bay

When you zoom-in you can see some of the complex patterns formed by the ice crystals:





In view of the strong winds we had a few days back, I have positioned a few bricks on top of the garden table to dissuade it from blowing away. These bricks too became fringed with little spiky ice crystals:




Even the garden chairs were covered in hard-frozen water droplets, looking as if they had been deliberately covered with studs:


Good weather for staying indoors and making some soup, don't you think?

15 comments:

  1. gorgeous pics Mark... love the detail... looks like someone sprinkled diamonds in the garden last night... did they?... where do you live again...?

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  2. I don't believe it - guess what I have prepared for posting tomorrow!!

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  3. Utterly beautiful. The nasturtiums are a revelation. I still have some too so, if we get a frost (it has to be pretty hard to get into our sheltered garden) I'll try to make sure to see if I can see them at this pre-mush stage.

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  4. I'm amazed by the Nasturtium leaves, the frost has followed the veins. Lovely pictures Mark.

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  5. Looking cold! My nasturtiums turned to mush about Nov. Funny how other annuals are still going.

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  6. Definitely good weather for staying inside. We were not quite as cold today as yesterday but the ground was mighty cold to lay on while I helped get that gas tank back up.

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  7. Too cold - get thee inside to your soup! I do really like the last shot though with the chair with the frost pimples.

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  8. You are putting that lens to good use Mark! Hope you enjoyed your soup.

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  9. Hi Mark... your photography is amazing.. truly inspiring.. I guess I should buy a better camera a start taking pictures of my plants too after all...

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  10. Hi Mark. It's difficult to comprehend such cold when we're having temps in the late 20s at the moment! (27 today!) Beautiful pics tho. Still think you should publish them somehow...x

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  11. It took me ten minutes to scrape the ice off the car this morning before I took my son to school, but it's a lovely crisp sunny day. I came back and took the dog for a walk. I love winters days like these.

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  12. It's a good thing to stop and look closely at the garden. There is so much to see.... in any season!

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  13. Love days like these much better than gloomy and mild - I decided soup was the order of the day for lunch today so Leek and Potato went into the pot with a heel of parmesan to liven it up a bit. Yumski scrumski

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  14. Beautiful photos indeed! And to make even a brick look so fascinating!! I am in awe...

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  15. Definately soup weather, loved the pictures. It truly is amazing how intricately formed those ice crystals can be.

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