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.
In case you haven't worked it out, I really really like fungi. I can't say why I like them so much but I do.
When I was selecting my pictures for today I thought that my favourite picture was the first one; I love the richness and warmth, I love the shape and the texture but there is also the promise of more as the fungus actually opens out. As I carried on choosing pictures though I thought that perhaps the fourth one was my favourite, with the colour and texture of fresh crusty bread. But then I think I have finally decided that the fifth image is my favourite. I think the lighting is perfect, the soft focus on the background helps to emphasise the delicate stem and the sharply focused fins on the underside of the opened out head. It is simply beautiful.
