Unplanned Thursday morning trip to Coombe Wood.

The day began with a glorious sunrise...

The gardener at Coombe Wood sent me a message to say that he'd seen frost flowers there again this morning in the same place as last year. I went over there as soon as possible to take some photos. Tiny white petal like frosty structures are attached to the short stems which had been cut back for the winter. You could easily miss them if you weren't looking for them.

Here come quite a few close ups. 

They're created by a sudden freeze causing the water in stems to freeze and expand making tiny slits form in the stem. Water then seeps out of the slits and freezes in the cold air forming ice ribbons or frost flowers. 

Some of them look like delicate shells.

The gardener was mulching more of the flower beds.

It looked as if this was the destination for the next barrow load of mulch.

I could smell the mahonia quite strongly this morning

and the witch hazel scent was travelling quite a distance.

You have to get very close to the winter honeysuckle to catch the scent of the tiny flowers.

The scars on the old beech tree show where it has lost limbs.

Young mistletoe.

Lichen - various colours and textures. 

Snowdrops.

A last look at a couple of frost flowers. 

Icy pond. 

Thank you very much for joining me.