A Stick

I was having breakfast when my neighbour came down the path. She'd been out walking her dog and had brought me a stick. Strange thing to bring, you might think, most neighbours are coming with cards to put through the letter box,  but no! This was far better than that! A couple of years ago she amazed me with a photo on Facebook of ice on a stick. She had remembered how much I'd liked it.

This is no ordinary ice formation. This is special. It's hair ice, it's rare but she had seen it again today!

"Hair ice is a rare type of ice formation where the presence of a particular fungus in rotting wood produces thin strands of ice which resemble hair or candy floss.
One of the first records of the phenomenon was made by Alfred Wegener (the discoverer of continental drift) in 1918. He observed a strange ice forming only on wet dead wood and proposed a theory that a specific fungi must be the catalyst for the smooth, silky hairs of ice."    Read more from the Met Office if you wish.

After taking some shots I went into town for some last-minute items and called in on The Mate. The evening was spent wrapping presents.