Patterns in Frost

The colours of winter are often the dull shades of brown or green, but add a bit of frost and everything changes. The veins of the dead leaves are made visible by lines of ice crystals and fern and ivy leaves are outlined by a rim of white.

On bramble leaves it is not the veins that attract the ice but the flat leaf surface between them where the crystals grow.

Even on the sand, the wrack waiting to float on the next spring tide is rimed in frost.

All of this can be found In the corner of Bathing House Wood beside the steps to Downing Point, where shelter from the sun and wind and a flow of moist air coming from the sea have created perfect conditions for frost crystals to grow and paint leaves and stems with icy sparkle.