All About Frost and Frosts

Frosty mornings make winter so special. Children love stories of Jack Frost and marvel at the ferny, frost patterns on the icy windows. Isn't it wonderful to see the sun glistening on frosted grass or see the plant edged with iced lace?

Here, at our B&B in Limousin, the heart of rural France, winter is a beautiful time of year and we often have sparkling white frosts in winter - bright in the sunshine and under a brilliant blue sky.

Winter frosts are important to culturally too and we celebrate frost in so many different ways. Frost forms part of our mythology, is enshrined in poetry and prose, depicted in paintings and images. We all love to see frosty winter landscapes in films.

Here are a few thoughts on frost and all things rimy and hoar-frosty.

Image: Our ram, Simon Peter, at Les Trois Chenes. He is a hardy little soul who, along with his missus and lambs, liked to sit out in the fields all winter long, even though they had a nice shed for shelter. He's a Ouessant sheep, a dwarf breed that comes from the north of France. Unfortunately, the sheep had to go to a good home not far from us where they are 'employed' eating the grass - what a life!

If you are passing by and would like to stay in our guest house, or our self-catering holiday cottage (gite, vacation rental), do give us a ring on +33 (0)5 55 48 29 84, or you can e-mail me on info@lestroischenes.com. Do have a look at our website at www.lestroischenes.com too

So what is frost exactly and how is frost formed?

The air is full of moisture in the form of vapour. As the air cools at night, this vapour forms drops of water on objects and plants as dew. When this dew freezes, we get frost.

Image: Frosted honesty seed heads growing next to our well at Les Trois Chenes

I remember reading lots of stories about Jack Frost when I was a child and the image of this chilly chappie lives on. In Britain and America, Jack is a youthful variant of Old Man Winter; we imagine him as an ice-blue boy who nips noses and chills the fingers and toes of children. He paints patterns in ice on the windows and frosts the trees and plants. The character, Jack Frost, may have originated as a sprite-like creature in Viking lore, called Jokul Frosti or "icicle frost." Father Frost is the Russian figure and he's a smith who ties together earth and water with heavy chains. Brings to mind 'earth as hard as iron'.

When moisture settles on the glass and begins to freeze the first frost crystals form a layer and after that each new crystal aligns itselves with the existing ones creating these wonderful ferny patterns. This still doesn't explain this natural wonder though!

Image: Courtesy of Irate, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

The Frost performs its secret ministry,

Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry

Came loud--and hark, again! loud as before.

The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,

Have left me to that solitude, which suits

Abstruser musings: save that at my side

My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.

Read the rest of this moving poem here: Frost at Midnight

This is the first line of William Wordsworth's poem 'Skating'

Skating from The Prelude

And in the frosty season, when the sun

Was set, and visible for many a mile

The cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom,

I heeded not their summons: happy time

It was indeed for all of us - for me

It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud

The village clock tolled six, - I wheeled about

Proud and exulting like an untired horse,

That cares not for his home. All shod with steel,

We hissed along the polished ice in games

Confederate, imitative of the chase

And woodland pleasures, - the resounding horn,

The pack loud chiming, and the hunted hare.

Read the rest of The Prelude here: The Prelude Book I Hear Ian McKellen reading Ice Skating

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) was an English Romantic poet who spent most of his life in the Lake District, northern England. The Lake District landscape is breathtakingly beautiful, a patchwork of woodland, hills, pastures and lakes studded with quaint villages and pretty towns. Wordsworth was happy describing this landscape in poetry and in recollecting the childhood sports and games. This poem celebrates frost and winter.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening is one of my mother's favourite poems and she introduced me to it. Like many of Frost's poems, it grows richer the more you read it. The Road Not Taken is another of my favourites, why don't you take a look at some of Frost's poems if you haven't stumbled across his work already?

Why not take a winter break in Limousin?

Limousin is lovely in winter and we get the most beautiful frosty winter mornings here. We live close by the lakes of the Haute-Charente in south west France; about half an hour's walk or five minutes away by car. Cheap, peaceful and beautiful - who could ask for more for a winter break? We live in a nature reserve and you'll see wildlife all around you. Why not come and pay a visit? The low season in this forgotten corner of France is a real bargain! Ideal for walkers and ramblers, for cosy evenings in front of a log fire, for romantic Valentine Day escapes, for run-away weddings and so much more. Stay with us in our guest house or our self catering cottage and enjoy a winter break in France. (For cotact details see below).

When Videix lake, frozen in the winter of 2012, began to thaw, it sang. A friend captured the song of the lake on a video for you.