owls and tits

coming back late last night we saw two owls fly silently past followed by a blood curdling screech (check the link) ... barn owls out hunting. We would really like to get a picture of owls but we never see them in the day time, so for the time being this pic, from yesterday, of a long tailed tit will have to do. Also lots of interesting twigs (see below).

no frost and it flowers

our pet twig photographed last night, with the frost flower developing. There is no frost on the ground, and this is consistent with what happens in the woods (see below). It is some property of cold air on bare wood that has been in woods. I don't think the explanations that have I read so far quite hold up. It is not the woods themselves, or the cold alone.



Spot (bottom literally left) says he will lose the will to live unless we change the subject.

frost flowers

At last I have some more information. This sort of ice formation is called frost flowers (see link and Wiki), and is rare, and has never been reproduced in controlled laboratory conditions (according to the source). In fact, it seems highly likely to me that the critical factor is that it happens on water logged wood. Oh, the joy of science. We shall see.

Spot is yawning.

He wonders why there is no tag for calling a post boring

the plot thickens

soft rime on a piece of wood, that had rime on it yesterday and was brought back from Inny woods, and spent last night on the lawn. The formation of rime is not due to location in a wood or near to a river, therefore. It doesn't seem to form on other bits of wood lying around, but we will put that to the test next. Boring but all in the interests of scientific curiosity.

no rime or reason, mystery solved

at long last definitive proof that ice is ice (see earlier pics). And Spot says it melts in his mouth and tastes just like water. The ice formation is very distinctive. It occurs on twigs and small branches on patches without bark. It is very localised and it does not occur on all bare surfaces. I would have thought it should have a local name like Jack Frost's beard, Christmas rime, or St Nicholas's mushrooms. We have brought back a frost covered bare branch and placed it in a sheltered spot in the estate to see whether it happens here. Further research suggests this is a particular form of soft rime, possibly related to the unusual location in woodland in a sheltered river valley.

New Year's Eve

a star to guide us by, Venus sitting by the newish moon, maybe this conjunction indicates next year will be a happier one for us all