Today dawned sunny and bright ... a seemingly brief respite from what we've had and according to the weather forecast what is to come across Britain. But despite the sunny start, overnight conditions had caused traffic accidents on some local road networks.
Here in the garden there were peaceful scenes of frost decorated plants shining in sunlight
... which slowly began to defrost all that it touched, though on the shady side the vegetation was still decorated with tiny fingers of ice crystals. But it was something else that was de-icing some branches on the neighbours tree ... very very fat, wood pigeons that to be honest had pie potential. They're a big problem for farmers around here, huge flocks of them gorge themselves in the vast acres of grain. I sometimes wonder how they manage to even fly. Just look closely at the photograph below ...
right at the top of the tree is a fat pigeon and a fairly rounded out blackbird that feasts at the various bird feeders available in the garden. But all that area of green in the tree was created by the pigeon trying to perch in the foliage and in doing so dislodged the ice crystals that had been so beautifully decorating the uppermost branches. Spoilsport!
All around this lovely garden there were crystallised spiders webs decorating everything ... plants, outdoor chairs, gates and even lawn mowers and doors. Like diamante necklaces, they bejewelled even the most mundane of garden implements and ornaments, and what never ceases to amaze me is that such a fragile thing as even a tiny spiders web can withstand the weight of frost crystals or rain drops. Our much maligned arachnids are really quite amazing, industrious little creatures!
The skies as you can see in the photo of the tree were a beautiful, clear blue but as the day lengthened the clouds gathered & the forecast for the days ahead promises a lot more snow.
It was late afternoon when I eventually got out with the dog. My plan was to put petrol in the tank and get a daily paper at the nearest garage ... but to my great surprise the 24/7 refuel facility was totally closed off, not a light in the garage shop ... so I had to drive to the nearest town ... sold out of newspapers ... no petrol! Got a few other necessities from a shop and on the way back stopped to give the mad mutt a run in the darkening light of the still snow white fenland. Typically ... too dark to take photographs when entrancing things happen ... the first was three hares, two chasing and boxing each other and one following them as if watching the action. Now ... I thought ... "This is mid January, surely hare mating gives rise to the phrase "Mad March Hares, isn't this is too early?" Some googling later and I find that the phrase applies more to fully mature hares and that the youngsters will try it on as early as January. I also discovered that this "boxing" is not male versus male competitive aggression but usually a female rebuffing an eager male because she is not yet ready to mate. Quite an aggressive defence strategy.
Now ... to my delight and ... the dog's fascination ... I was to witness this behaviour three times in succession, in the same snow covered, ploughed field by three different groups of three hares (nine in total). I was entranced and at times the hares came so close to us that had the light been better, I could have got decent photographs. It was obviously not meant to be and neither was the best surprise yet to come. The dog was ahead of me, nosing through the strip of long grasses between ploughed fields (most of them with iced over puddles in the deep ruts) when he disturbed a female roe deer. She leapt out onto the plough and both I and the dog just stopped still, so did she. There was a magical moment when the three of us were just (almost literally) freeze framed, none of us moving and in the late almost dark afternoon, with the cold air freezing around us, the only moving thing was the visibly steaming breath emanating from dog, deer and human. Just wonderful!
I shall leave you with a photo taken this morning of frosted mahonia leaves.
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