Colder Still

Just as we thought it couldn't get any colder, what do you know?  It does!
Last night was the coldest yet as the thermometer confirmed this morning, it got down to -13.2ºC.  Unbelievably cold.  The Pyracantha at the front of our house looks as if it has been sugar-frosted.

Malcolm and I looked like piles of walking woolens this morning as we made our way cautiously through the ice to Tesco for a few necessaries.  Where the snow is still laying thickly, ice crystals have formed on the surface.  In the sunshine yesterday, they glittered like diamonds.  Looking closer, you can start to get an idea of their fragile beauty.

Some crystals resembled needles as they grew from the snow, while others took on a more formal, geometric shape.

By the time we returned from our shopping, the fog was beginning to envelope us, freezing as quickly as it formed, coating the branches ever more thickly in hoar frost.

By now, everything is shrouded in white ice crystals and is looking more and more like an Alpine scene by the minute.