FIRST ICE.

<<< This was the scene that met us this morning up on the mountain. Deep tractor ruts completely iced over! The dog who normally loves splashing through such places, looked suitably unimpressed with this state of his playground but with a rather chilly breeze he was happy, his tail feathers shaking in the air. Talking of tail feathers I am chook minder over this week as the family take a half term holiday in the hopefully warmer climes of Spain. which reminds me, I've just left two freshly laid bantam eggs in the car. Bothers, they were going to be my breakfast.

So while mad mutt was snuffling the scents in the now wintry rushes and grasses, I was almost nose to the ground myself, because one thing I love a about ice like this, is the patterns that get formed across the surface of small puddles, all sorts of fascinating shapes appear and some as you'll see, are quite intriguing.

Look at the image on the right, it almost looks like a seal sniffing the few strands of grass.

Or maybe it's a pair of seals, looking out of their frozen pond at the clear skies above.

This one is almost floral, or is it some kind of ice fungus, there are figures in there too.

And in the one below, the sheep may have been gathered off the mountain ...

but I can see an almost cartoonised lamb faced little critter ...

I just love the fun nose and the clarity of the eye, a shy looking lamb.

But not all the puddles were so icy white, where the sun shone on ale coloured puddles

There was a sudden burst of colour under the ice and I could see tiny water creatures diving around underneath their newly frozen canopy which, not easily seen in this photo had obviously frozen as the wind last night, caused all sorts of patterns as the ice was forming.There were straight lines, swirls, ripples, all caught in a freeze frame moment.

The beech trees are fast losing their colourful canopies, but there was one special joy today, the scrunching of crisp, tobacco scented leaves. After all the soggy days we've had recently, this felt more like autumn past and yet on a day that felt like the first day of the winter ahead. Tonight the clocks go back an hour. On the radio today I heard an easy way to remember which way the time changes ... "Spring-ahead & fall-behind." I hate this time change thing, it throws by body clock out and the dog too, but with the cold evenings ahead at least the chooks will be ready to roost early. Tonight as I saw them safely locked away, there was a beautiful luminescent full moon ... guess who had left their camera at home? And who had forgotten the washing on the line, so before taking it off the line, I had a chance to take a photo in the near dark. Not very good (camera too small ... no tripod) but a nice way to end what has been a cold but interesting autumnal/winter day. 

P.S. The council have salted the roads, but with rain forecast for tonight, Tomorrows forecast for rain due in for most of the day, will simply wash it all away. Oh well.

It was fun while it lasted!