November 17th - Jack Frost's first visit!

There was just a suspicion of frost on the trees this morning ... enough to make you think that Jack had breathed on them for a moment before going on to more important things!  Sadly there are few elms around these days, but we are lucky to have one close by ... and in it some mistletoe!  The mistletoe is high up in its branches - safe from the most avid collector, and I am always amazed by how spherical the balls of this strange plant are ... like ethereal footballs suspended in some strange net!


Maybe Jack Frost is a football fan ...

The snowberries are becoming smaller and harder now, too - like little white footballs!  Earlier in the year some of them seem to "blow up", become soft, and are then tempting and eaten by birds ... others seem to "petrify" as the cold weather begins and remain on the plant until the birds are really desperate for food later in the winter.  Nature's cold-store.



Not appetising now, but wait until January!