“If a solution fails to appear … and yet we feel success is just around the corner, try resting for a while. … Like the early morning frost, this intellectual refreshment withers the parasitic and nasty vegetation that smothers the good seed. Bursting forth at last is the flower of truth.”
― Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Advice for a Young Investigator
Winter is finally here at our little farm. We awoke to a hard frost that reached all the way from the flats on the river up to the orchard high on the hill behind our house.
Harry dog’s favourite toy, his stuffed penguin who’d been left outside overnight, was bristling with frost feathers.
Anywhere the grass was protected by the canopy of a tree you could still see green, but everything else was dusted with frost.
The dog water bowls and birdbaths are sealed with a shiny layer of ice. The air smells of bright clean frost and soil. A lovely smell.
Frost kills insect pests and sweetens the fruit hanging from the citrus trees. There will be fewer buffalo flies to annoy the cattle, fewer ticks this season. A good frost knocks them all out.
The grass is crunchy and stiff with the weight of tiny ice crystals.
Ordinary things become jewelled gifts.
I’m so grateful for the seasons, and their stunning play of beauty.
I love frost. It looks so beautiful there. 🙂 And love that smell!!! Enjoy!!!!
Haha, so at first I thought the title of this post was about a game… think ‘duck, duck, goose!!!’ if you know that one… easily adaptable to ‘frosty,… frosty,… penguin!!!’
Have you ever heard of tick tubes? Can buy them premade or spray permethrin on cotton balls and stuff it into paper towel tubes and set them out for mice to build nests with the cotton… which is supposed to not harm the mice but kill the young ticks on them. I don’t know how great an idea it is or if it works, but from one lyme-warrior to another… doesn’t every weapon in our arsenal count? 😉
Hugs and cozy frost blessings,
Mia
It’s bloody cold here lately
I just saw this quote on FB….Sara just shared it. Your lands look a lot like our farm (hinterland mid north coast NSW). Beautiful morning, beautiful images.
Hello there! from across the globe! In my neck of the woods we are just starting our summer ( Langley, B.C., Canada.) Quite often we don’t ease into our summer but get hit with a heat spell after days and days of rain with the odd sunny one and then BAM the heat is on! I’m not complaining though! When I first saw the title of today’s post , I thought ‘ Oh goody ..a recipe for some nice frosty treats! for the warm days ahead’ Lol
Ahhh…yes there is nothing like the nice crisp scent of the air in the early morning after a frost! And curling up on the couch in front of the fire in the cold evenings with a good book! Well I think I’m gonna go stick my head in the freezer now! lol
Enjoy your Winter Season that is upon you Nicole, and thank god for ‘old man winter’ for knocking off all those nasty ticks!
I am extremely grateful we haven’t got to the frosty stage yet here in Sydney (although no doubt its on its way!) Appreciating the beauty that frost beings to the landscape (but flip – its chilly on a bicycle at 5.30am!!!) so loving the crisp, clear, blue skies here
It’s been frosty here too – I think I’m a bit south of you, on the mid north coast. Dry and frosty, and smoky too. I think we’ve had more frosts in the past month than we have for at least the past few years – it’s all necessary. I absolutely adore that quote at the beginning xo