01 March 2012

Messy mix

The weather people don't like it when the temperature is around the freezing point and a system is due to arrive. It makes it difficult to forecast whether people are going to get rain, freezing rain, ice pellets or snow. They always say that there will be a 'messy mix' as the system passes through.

Messy from a forecaster's point of view, perhaps, but my ears always prick up when I hear that phrase, as I know it means there will be a chance of some interesting ice formations for me to take pictures of. Today was such a day: we had freezing rain on waking, which turned to regular rain and then to snow.

On my morning walk with the dog, I found a fence-post decorated with a combination of snow, ice and lichen:


Some aster seed-heads, weighed down and encased by ice:


This Canadian thistle head looks like something microscopic blown up big:


And this seed head of Queen Anne's Lace was somehow still standing upright, where most of the others had toppled to the ground:


Not messy at all, in my opinion!

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