Frost Flowers!
We had to look this up on the internet (thanks Wikipedia!).
Duncan came back from walking the dog talking about this fungus that had sprung up all over our woods overnight! When he described it I said it sounded more like mould than fungus as we couldn't find anything in our book of fungi that even vaguely resembled it.
The worrying thing was that Dexter kept picking up sticks with it on and eating it!
Well, finally Duncan brought some home (it used to be flowers and now I get mould!). And as I looked closely at it I said that's ice! It was melting.
That explains why Dexter ate it – he loves ice!
I've included a few photos for you – but sadly I didn't have my camera with me for the more amazing ones – some 6 inches high and 4 inches wide looked like Santa's beard!
Apparently these are very rare – requiring specific conditions. They happen when the air temperature is freezing but the ground temperature is not. So plants, twigs, small tree stumps (through capillary action) release beads of water and when they hit the air they freeze. But the plant/twig keeps releasing the moisture and pushes out these beautiful and delicate strands of ice. They look like white hair!
It was totally amazing to walk through the woods and to have these "Frost Flowers" as they are known everywhere you looked. Weird and amazing!
