After the snow at the beginning of February, last weekend the temperatures in this part of the world plummeted to a wintry -12C creating a cold crystalline landscape.
So here are some pictures from the frost bound south Cambridgeshire countryside:
Ash saplings and brambles festooned with ice crystals on the shaded north side. The sun had already stripped the south side bare of frost
It was still early in the morning so the sun was low in the sky and created ghostly scintillations as it reflected from showers of dancing frost crystals dislodged by wafts of icy breeze.
As I walked my footsteps made loud cracking and crunching sounds but when I stood still it was completely silent. No cars, no birdsong, just the sound of the breeze. It was absolutely beautiful.
The rays of the sun couldn’t reach the grass stems so they remained coated with crystals through the day
Giant burdock
The burrs of the burdock (Arctium lappa) normally provide seeds for goldfinches to feast on but today they were twice their normal size and weighed down by a thick coating of frost.
The Naturephile 