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Frost has an amazing ability to enhance the smallest of garden details. It takes very little to allow it to create a fleeting beauty. Anything can suddenly become attractive when encrusted by these tiny, white crystals of ice.
The last of the year’s flowers, dried-out seed heads, leaves, or slender grasses stilled by the cold air – all are made much more interesting to look at by a touch of frost. These are the leaves of Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasqueflower). In spring they are soft and hairy and a delight to stroke. By winter those hairs have disappeared, giving the curving shapes of the deeply-cut leaves more prominence. To my mind, the dead and frosted leaves suggest the look of a woodcut image or engraved stone.
As I’m writing this, the ground is still frozen. Tomorrow, though, is forecast to be milder and rainy, so the magic of the frost will be gone from the garden. These leaves won’t last long once the frost has finished with them, but will be left limp and probably rather translucent. The frost will have helped them along their path of decomposition and their eventual contribution to the richness of the garden soil. 🍂
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
The frost does a good job outlining and thereby emphasizing the distinctive shapes of the leaves.
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Absolutely, Steve! And I think it encourages us to see details in nature that we might have missed before.
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The form of the leaves reminds me of some of the fabrics designed by William Morris. Even the colors resemble those he often chose. I couldn’t find his ‘Acanthus’ design in colors resembling your photo, but this gives an idea of the form.
Frozen ground! I hardly can imagine it. I’m sure our day is coming, but it’s not yet even on the horizon. Tomorrow, the story will be wind, with a frontal passage.
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Yes, that does look very similar – you can easily see where William Morris got his inspiration when you look at nature.
The temperature has come up again, so the frost is gone and the ground is no longer frozen. Instead it is very wet…no gardening today!
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The forecast for Austin says that by Monday morning the temperature may drop barely below freezing in some outlying areas.
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Maybe you’ll get a touch of frost soon…happy frost-photography if you do!
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I could also see these almost woodcut shapes curling out of the mouths of Green Man carvings, albeit winter ones. I just love the effect frost has on nature.
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Yes, I see it like that too, Jill. (The Green Man is fascinating!) Frost is probably the best thing about gardens in winter.
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Frost makes everything magical…
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It certainly does – for a little while! 🙂
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Winter art….beautiful, Ann!
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Thank you Indira! Frost certainly gets arty in the garden! 🙂
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Hardly any frost here, just very cold last week which reduced a lot of plants to mush and that distinctive cabbage smell. (even though I don’t grow cabbages) Your photo is brilliant and I agree with other comments.
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Thank you Jude! It has been very wet here today, so no frost for a while. Everything will be soggy here too, but I’m hoping for some sun to dry things out…☀
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Beautiful and magical, Ann. We rarely get frost this thick!
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Thank you! It’s rare for us to get frost as heavy as this too, but we had a long very cold period last year. This winter’s frosts have been much lighter so far.
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Your beautiful photo looks like a segment of a large tapestry.
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Thank you! Yes, it does look a bit like the leaves in an old tapestry. 🙂
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