Hello winter my old friend…

Frosty Leaf

Having had “One of those days”, I am so grateful that it began with beauty. The frost turned everything into works of art, from leaves lingering on table tops to compost not swept up.

Frosty Compost

The hellebore leaves, harbingers of flowers to come, looked as if someone had taken a tipex pen to them and outlined each one with exquisite care.

Frosty Hellebore Leaves

The last few blooms on the wallflower competed with its leaves in the beauty pageant.

Frosted Wallflower

Frosted Wallflower Leaves

The sedums continue to look wonderful.

Frosted Sedum

Only one flower left on the wonderful Knautia macedonica, definitely my Plant of the Year.

Frosted Knautia Macedonica

The heuchera leaves mingle with the leaf litter from the acer, the frost mocking my pathetic attempts at cake icing.

Frosted Heuchera Leaves #1

Frosted Heuchera Leaves #3

No snow here, but a definite taste of winter, only 1C in the greenhouse last night. Maybe Dave at The Home Garden should do a frost watch to follow his Fall Colour Project? I’m sure I’m not alone in having posted photos of frost, and even snow, so I’m off to hunt them down from the comfort of my snug study!

24 Comments


    1. Thank you Ellada, and thank you for visiting!


  1. Lovely, lovely photographs, Janet! As you said yesterday in your comments to my post it is so important to look and discover beauty in everything around us. Our lives are so much richer. Thank you.


    1. Hi Christina. One of the things I love most about this blogging lark is that not only do I get to share the beauty I see here with others but I get to see other people’s too. I loved your rainbow.


  2. They look great-but frosty! Can’t wait for the hellebores-soon.


    1. Hi Tina. Winter is definitely here, sub zero in the morning for the third day running, lots of plants looking a little sorry for themselves. Thank goodness for the evergreen shrubs, bright birch bark and those tough hellebores.


  3. Lovely photos, it was a beautiful day today, very cold but the sky was clear, much better than damp and grey.


    1. I agree, I’ll take bright and cold over warmer but grey and wet any day!


  4. Hi,

    Lovely photos, very nice indeed. I wish we got sun in the morning so I could take frost photos too. It takes a while at this time of year for the sun to come round and hit the garden… Even then it’s often too low to have much effect.

    I hope you don’t get any snow over the coming days – Or perhaps you want some to take shots of?? :)


    1. Hi Liz, thank you! Not sure about snow. I love the magical hush, but it tends to make the garden just look lumpy! I think I’m happy to wait a couple of months…


  5. Dear Janet, Yes, winter has certainly arrived with a vengeance. Short but sharp the weather forecasters say for the winter, but how sharp since sub zero temperatures seem to have arrived already. Definitely time to retreat indoors to the warmth of a fire and a hot toddy!!


    1. Yes, definitely weather to sit inside looking out rather than trying to garden!


  6. What beautiful pictures! My garden definitely perks me up when I’ve had a rotten day. I also grow knautia and really love it but have only seen wallflower here as an annual. I don’t think it’s designed to survive our hot humid summers.


    1. I’ve never grown wallflowers before, they were an impulse buy, but really delivered. I hadn’t realised you could get perennial wallflowers here either, they are mostly grown as biennials. I hope they survive the winter OK! I love the way that just a quick walk round outside (provided there is still some light) can re-balance me and give me back a sense of perspective.


  7. Great photos Jaent — the frost just adds a new dimension to everything. I’m away from home for a few days, so I don’t know what my own garden is doing right now, but that hasn’t stopped me getting out there with the camera, because the light conditions have been really special.


    1. Hi Mark, thank you! I love this time of year with the lower, softer light.


  8. Jack Frost is an outstanding artist. Well done. I think I would have still been in bed when he was doing his best work!


    1. I’m actually very lucky, in that the sun doesn’t reach the garden until after 0900 at this time of year. It means that usually the frost disappears before the sun makes it worth taking photos, but at least on the days when it looks beautiful I don’t have to get up really early to capture it!


  9. Very beautiful pictures! That first leaf looks gorgeous. And so does the flower


    1. Thank you – it was good to take the time to enjoy the beauty before the day got going properly.


  10. LOVE your photos! I had thought ‘gardening’ was over for the season, but like your photos – it’s just a matter of looking at it from a different perspective. And yours is fantastic… Thanks!!


    1. Thanks Shyrlene. My “gardening” is currently limited to tidying and planning for next year, but such beautiful mornings are precious!


    1. Hello Esther, that’s my favourite too! I think it will make a good greeting card. The day was pretty bad, but that was then, the next day was better, and only the good, the photographs and the memories they evoke remain.

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