'Ice flowers' are back with a vengeance

In January of this year I wrote about the "ice flowers" or "frost flowers" that pop up in Deerfield after the first extra-hard freeze. This latest numbing freeze has brought them out again.

The "flowers" occur when the cold causes the sap in small woody plants to ooze out of the stem. The sap then freezes and expands. There's a good explanation of the phenomenon in Wikipedia. Some spots around here look like a box of Kleenex has exploded.

There's much to be said for these flowers. They don't have to be fertilized or tended to, and then they go away on the first warm day.