Thawing Hoar Frost on Beech Saplings

Freezing fog has lately covered all the vegetation in my village with a transparent icy coat bearing fringes of needle-like crystals. As the sun comes out to burn off the mist, the rising temperature begins to melt this hoar frost. As I walked along beside tall beech trees on one such frosty morning, an unexpected heavy rain of icy water began to fall from the thawing ice in the highest boughs, cascading down through the understorey of saplings where drops accumulated on the twigs and leaves, shining like diamonds in the low-slanting winter sun. Difficult to capture with the camera the brilliance of the eye-dazzling effect of reflections from the melt water rain and droplets.