New Year's Day was clear and frosty so I went for a walk on the Wildcat Trail along the Spey - mainly just for the walk, but I thought I would keep an eye out for any flowering plants for the New Year Plant Hunt. I found not a single plant in flower....
I did see other things to admire though. Some stunning views of the snowy hills:
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| The Cairngorms from Newtonmore Golf Course |
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| Icy puddles |
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| Hair Ice on a rotting log |
Hair ice looks like white candyfloss. There is a lot of information about it at the Met office site here. They say it only forms in particular conditions: high humidity, a temperature below 0 °C and on rotten wood from a broad-leafed tree, and usually only between latitudes of 45°N to 55°N (though Newtonmore is at 57°N). It looks like lots of very thin fibres made of ice.
If you put some in your hand, it melts away to water. A man called Alfred Wegener suggested that it was linked to a specific fungus, though he did not know which one. He had other good ideas as he discovered continental drift. In 2015, 3 scientists proved him right and linked the formation of hair ice to a fungus called Exidiopsis effusa.
You can see a timelapse video of hair ice growing here.
