Jack Frost In The Garden

Birch seed pods

Ice crystals on lily stalks

Ice crystals on Cow Parsnip stalks

Spirea

Sparking spruce

Frosted pine

Last night we had what is often referred to here as a “freezing fog.”  The air cools quickly and the mist freezes to all the trees creating beautiful ice crystals.  When the sun came up this morning everything was covered in shimmering white.  It made me think of this poem:

JACK FROST IN THE GARDEN

Jack Frost was in the garden;
I saw him there at dawn;
He was dancing round the bushes
And prancing on the lawn.
He had a cloak of silver,
A hat all shimm’ring white,
A wand of glittering star-dust,
And shoes of sunbeam light.

Jack Frost was in the garden,
When I went out to play
He nipped my toes and fingers
And quickly ran away.
I chased him round the wood-shed,
But, oh! I’m sad to say
That though I chased him everywhere
He simply wouldn’t stay.

Jack Frost was in the garden:
But now I’d like to know
Where I can find him hiding;
I’ve hunted high and low-
I’ve lost his cloak of silver,
His hat all shimm’ring white,
His wand of glittering star-dust,
His shoes of sunbeam light.

John P. Smeeton