Fire and Frost

I was less than enthusiastic about a walk this morning, but TM tells me that we are likely to be snowed in tomorrow, so reluctantly I wrapped up well and decided that I'd be up for a circuit of the lochs at Bowhill. 

In the end, we walked down to the lower Loch. Ice was forming round the edges and it was looking very beautiful in the low afternoon sunlight.

A bit further on is Carterhaugh, where the hero of the ballad Tam Lin was rescued from the fairies by his lover, the magnificent Janet.  She had to wait by the well at midnight as the fairy host rode by, leap onto the third horse, the milk-white steed, that he was riding, and hang on to him while the fairies changed him into all manner of dreadful things - a snake, a bear, a lion, red-hot metal .. finally she had to throw him into the well, and when he emerges naked she covers him up with her cloak, and takes him home . Oh, and she was pregnant at the time ...

We found Carterhaugh, but not the well. It was a great walk, and I'll know where to look next time.

The extra, I was amazed to find. I heard of this recently (maybe on Blip?). It's called hair ice, and it looks a bit like feathers. It grows on rotting wood that has been infected by a fungus called Exidiopsis effusa, and the temperature and humidity levels have to be just right for it to form. There's a nice slow-motion video on the Met Office website, I'm sorry I don't know how to do a link. But it is fascinating to watch.