From beloved commentor & ace photographer Ozark Hillbilly:
Friday morning, November 26th, our temps hit 15 degrees. Trusty camera in hand, your faithful, intrepid, and 3 limbed servant ventured forth in search of the elusive frost flowers.
He had hoped to find them blooming in abundance. Sadly, they were even more timorous than usual, hiding deep in the shadows of cedars and rock bluffs, staying well out of the blustery north wind that had been stalking the hills and hollers the night before.
Ever willing to sacrifice much for the needs of the many, he persisted in acquiring a few examples for your mornings perusals and managed to do so in spite of a slinged arm, failing batteries, and irritable bowels.
You f’n jackals better appreciate it, cause I don’t think his wife did.
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What’s going on in your (indoor / tropical) garden (planning), this week?
eclare
Thank you for the photos! I’ve never seen a frost flower in person.
raven
Awesome, Dawg.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
Pictures are beautiful ?
Rachel Bakes
Wow
There go two miscreants
They are very pretty; I don’t recall ever seeing them either! Will have to keep an eye out — I am usually up early enough but not generally outside.
waysel
Appreciated by this fk’n jackal. Most cool.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Those are beautiful. Despite living in cold country all my life, I’ve never seen them.
Van Buren
Never seem ’em or heard of ’em.
Must be fake.
Forgive me, I am cranky as I supposed to be out of this hospital Friday and still here I lie, held hostage, just for the trivial reason that my ticker has gone bonkers.
HinTN
He’s intrepid and the results are excellent. Thanks!
debbie
They really are very cool. Thank your wife for all of us!
satby
LOL, I sure did! ? ?
satby
@Van Buren: I’m so sorry! Is “bonkers” the term the cardiologist is using? Get better and get home soon.
SiubhanDuinne
I love frost flowers! These are wonderful photos, and the commentary is hilarious. Much appreciated, Ozark, on a blecchy Sunday morning.
raven
Damn, we heard the sirens about 4am. When I took Artie out I saw all the fire trucks up the hill and went up to find there was a house fire at our neighbors. No one hurt and they and all the critters are safe but folks are scrambling to help them find quarters.
Scout211
Those frost flowers are beautiful!
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: The benefit of having to go feed the lone outside cat I can’t..quite…capture yet is that I sit outside, appropriately bundled up, and get to greet the occasional lovely dawn. It’s supposed to rain here, and the “red sky at morning” is bearing that out. He likes companionship while he eats, taking occasional breaks to come over for a petting or skritch.
JPL
Just beautiful.
@Van Buren: May tomorrow be better.
Argiope
Stunning photos! Now I have to go Google frost flowers to find out more about this lovely phenomenon. Sorry about the bowels, and hope you can ditch that sling soon. Blech!
Miki
Wow! What a brilliant way to start one’s day! Much appreciated.
SiubhanDuinne
@satby:
Sounds as though he is just on the verge of allowing himself to be “captured.” You are so patient in not rushing him. He’ll know when he is ready to trust fully.
The weather here looks fine — that wasn’t what I meant by “blecchy” — but I still have a lingering touch of yesterday’s tickle throat and annoying dry little cough. Nothing to mention in light of Van Buren’s ticker and OH’s be-slinged arm!
narya
Those are amazing–I didn’t even know such a thing existed! Thank you for your intrepidity.
I second satby’s enjoyment of the dawn. I think I’ve mentioned that my mom was enjoying my pix of the sunrise, so I’ve been trying to take one on the morning run each day. That, in turn, has made ME pay closer attention, sometimes taking a pic from the same spot several days in a row. It’s made me much more aware of how much the lake changes from day to day.
OzarkHillbilly
@Van Buren: I hate that shit. Had a similar experience post shoulder surgery for different reasons. Maybe looking at the frost flowers and chanting, “Om mani padme hum…” will soothe the wild beast that lies in your chest.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I love your frost flower pics. They may be my favorite Garden Chat images. Thank you. I think it is how I know that in an hour they will all be gone that makes their really amazing unique beauty so valuable. Even when it is a picture.
Please thank the Mrs. for her indulgence from me?
Gin & Tonic
Supposed to be at least partly sunny here, and in the mid-40’s. May take the convertible out for a last spin before covering it up until April or so.
Immanentize
@Van Buren: I am urging your ticker to SIMMER DOWN! And BE-HAVE! from afar.
Good luck and don’t let them try any ivermectin as a cure.
WaterGirl
@Van Buren: i am sending the mind meld to your ticker with the message that it should settle down and rest, so that will surely do the trick.
SFAW
Beautiful photos, glad they’re here. Thanks, OH!!!
But: “beloved commentor”? Doesn’t Ozark prefer to be “blech-loved/-loving commentor”?
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Not even my wife refers to me as “beloved”. If I’m good, I mean really good, I become “tolerable”.
MelissaM
I appreciate! Very much so, in fact! What an amazing and temporary thing a frost flower is. Thank you for your service, OH!
Kristine
Lovely photos!
I don’t recall ever seeing frost flowers here–I’d think I’d remember. Hoarfrost, yes. It’s lovely in its own way
Pellets (graupel?) falling here in NE Illinois. Rain expected later, followed by a temp drop and wind. Should be fun putting up the outdoor tree tomorrow. That said, it’s just a spiral electric tree that I’ll be securing in a planter, so it shouldn’t take long. Outdoor decorations will be minimalist this year.
OzarkHillbilly
In NWS parlance, “sleet”. Took me years to learn that.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: Apparently there’s a difference–I recall some online discussions a few weeks ago when we received a round of stuff falling out of the sky. According to NOAA:
Still not super clear, but I take it to mean that graupel is softer and possibly powdery, while sleet is ice BBs.
oldgold
Frost Flowers
The rain to the wind said, You push and I’ll pelt.’ They so smote the garden bed That the flowers actually knelt, And lay lodged–though not dead. I know how the flowers felt.
Robert Frost
Betty
I love the frost flower pictures. Thanks for the poem, oldgold. Hope your get better news soon, Van Buren!
OzarkHillbilly
Which is what I thought you were referring to when you said, “pellets”. FTR, “Graupel” is a new term to me. Don’t think I’d ever read it before.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for getting these photos for us, and I’m sorry it caused you to suffer. These are wonderful, and I’ve never seen anything like them.
We have an odd phenomenon here in the PNW that someone told me were frost flowers, but they are nothing like yours. Ours are the result of the ground being so saturated that when the temp drops below freezing, the water in the soil expands upwards and creates little columns, sometimes wearing a pebble like a little hat.
waratah
Wow just Wow! Thank you as someone that shares some of your physical difficulties I know the photos were not easy to shoot and you did not cut back.
NotoriousJRT
Fabulous! Thank you!
waratah
@oldgold: Thank you. I had a public school education with teachers that loved English poets. I was so lucky.
satby
@oldgold: beautiful! I didn’t remember that one.
WaterGirl
Stunning, Ozark, just stunning.
Say what you want, but you are beloved here. Fairly certain that you are beloved at home, as well, but as it’s a Sunday morning I don’t wish to argue.
currants
@oldgold:
Oh, NICE! Thank you!
currants
@WaterGirl:
Yes, Ozark–what WG said. She’s right. They are so beautiful! And only with sense of scale you get from the occasional stem can you understand how delicate and fragile they are, because they appear solidly shaped (well, as solidly as ice can be).