Winter Magic

While Winter is not officially here, frigid temperatures certainly are. Below, you can see what gifts these cold conditions bestow: frost flowers. I wrote about them and how they form almost exactly one year ago here .  I came across dozens yesterday and today, more than I'd ever seen before (but they look so similar to last year's photos). They remind me of mushrooms in summer, needing very particular conditions to appear, crouched and hidden beneath trees and in hedges, and then before you know it, vanishing back into the magic from whence they came. Winter's secret treat for those who will look for them.