That's Nice!

Today's selection of pictures were taken last week on my trip to Snowdonia. Surrounded by mountains, lakes and big skies you might expect me to focus on the larger landscape but in the ice and frost there is a great deal of beauty in the little things. Like these frozen dewdrops and ice crystals on the grass.

I had to get down on my knees in the frosty grass to get these images and I was glad to have a mat to kneel on.

I love the different shapes of the dewdrops, some even had their own icicles and rather than a smooth surface as I had expected they all had a veined appearance and you can see the individual crystals that make up the frost which from a higher perspective looks like a solid white coating. Simply beautiful.

Do You Get The Point

I think the first two images are of Musk Thistle (or something very similar). The spines are really hard and viciously sharp. I really like the fine hairs along the edge of each leaf and the way they trap the tiny droplets of dew.

In the third picture I had intended to show the droplets lined up along the blade of grass but if you look closely you can also see fine hairs along the edge which is what has trapped the water and prevented it from draining away.