Thistle with Diamonds...

You know what? I love thistles - during summer time they have absolutely beautiful blooms and they supply the best food for all kinds of bees and butterflies. And in wintertime they are the most beautiful little ice queens - don't you think?

A different kind of Thistle...

These are the frozen remnants of globe thistles. Don't they look adorable in their coat of snow white frosting?

More Icing on Leaves....

Carrying an icy load - waiting for the sun....

Icing on my Needles...

I don't know why but when pine needles look like this they make me always giddy. They look so funny and beautiful at the same time...

The Ice Queen was here - icing the Leaves...

It's definitely winter since a couple of weeks already and I have already enough of it (I have always enough of it!). Tonight we even have had the lowest temperatures since 2003 and additionally on the very same day: - 9°C ( I don't know what the offical temperature was yet but this was the temperature on my balcony).

No colour only grey days, hardly any sun besides today a bit and it is cold - freezing cold. No chance even so far to capture some nice pictures of snow and ice in the sun - so I have to come back to last years photos of two days only where the world seemed to have been put under a spell - the one of the ice queen...