Festively freezing
Having spent the autumn moaning about the wind and rain it would be unfair of me to ignore the fact that it is now bright and frosty. We have had cold days and even colder nights with temperatures dropping to -3c. This is not exceptional and yesterday, up the road, it was -5c – (in Braemar, Scotland, it fell to -17c and only rose to -9c yesterday). What is slightly unusual here is that days are barely above freezing, if at all. We are milder here than many areas and we have no snow, though it rained yesterday evening and that froze overnight. Cold makes me panic about the garden and the tender plants in the greenhouse, but i should just ‘chill’ and enjoy the frost.
Cotoneaster franchetii continues to delight me and seems to pick up the frost better than any other plant which augments its greyness. Its arching growth (yes it should have been clipped earlier) make it look like an animated, silvery wave crashing over the border.
The Biking Gardener 
We have experienced very much the same conditions; gardening is out of the question but three good books in the post will keep me occupied indoors.
Enjoy!
Nice to get a bit of hoar frost.to show off the stems. It drives me mad when I see some of the gorgeous photos in books with that winter wonderland look. If I leave my dead stems they end up a broken soggy mess! In 30 years it’s never happened here. I suppose that must have some advantages. We had a smattering of snow here and lowest temperatures -4 at night -2 daytime. + 3 or so today. Some Helliborus orientalis flower stems up 4”.
I know what you mean about the frosty photos. I suppose it is why it is so nice when we get them. I drove up the N11 to Gorey Monday and suddenly the fog melted and the landscape was icy white against a blue sky – amazing. reassuringly it was dense fog when I got back!