After falling back last night we awoke to our first really hard frost. Not just the light dusting of grey over the landscape that we have seen to date. This was the thick snow like covering that comes with a damp twenty degree morning.
The warm weather crops are long since gone, leaving us with cold tolerant flower sprouts, leeks, and kale. Yet even those plants were heavy with the fatigue of this frost.
This will surly test the hardiness of the four different varieties of sage that we planted. Two of which are supposed to be perennial in our environment, we. shall. see.
Our full row of lavender has turned into a beautiful hedge such as you might find in an English garden. It was truly magical to see it encased in ice crystals this morning, just as the sun was rising to melt this early winter landscape. Probably most striking were the trees. I have spent hours in each of the two last Fall seasons on windy days trying to capture a leaf in flight. It has been a very frustrating experience. This morning I learned that after a really hard frost, those few leaves that remain simply give up their fight and rain off of the handful of trees that have held tight to them. They do not land soundlessly as you might expect, they land on the frozen ground with a faint tap, a beautiful wake-up for all of the senses this morning.
