An Icy New Year

 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:

The Cairngorms from Newtonmore Golf Course

 Some attractive ice patterns in the puddles:

Icy puddles

And for the first time, some Hair ice.

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.