Frosted Botany

The Royal Botanic Gardens looked spectacular under a spiky layer of sparkling frost. I love the Garden’s Victorian allure whenever I visit but today, due to my camera lens steaming up when we went into the warm glasshouses, the photographs I took of the beautiful orchids remind me of 1920s sepia pictures of ethereal women in magnificent gardens holding huge bouquets of delicate flowers.

Crystalline swan feathers were caught suspended in the frozen water of our local pond. I think they are a perfect, purified symbol of winter whilst the first tender snow drops, which we spotted hiding under a bare and twiggy hedgerow, are a teasing reminder of spring.