Scout Scar: snow, mist and icicles

Mist gathering to the right, beyond Kendal Race Course

Setting out in bright sun, I was ready for an icy approach to Scout Scar.  Snow on Kendal Race Course and mist  hid the fells to the north east.  Sheep tugged at haylage in the feeder and pawed the frozen ground where it  spilled onto snow.  The flock was lost in sunlit mist, then the sun gave up on the day and mist prevailed.
There had been rain, then snow, and we could feel the ice beneath a surface layer of snow.  When we reached the escarpment  only a colour transition  marked the cliff edge where snow met mist.

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Cold enough to find fieldfare sheltering in the woodland fringe. I could hear faint contact calls and spied a small flock in the top of an ash tree. Then they flew silently and were gone. But I heard them calling later.
The sequence of rain followed by snowfall created unusual effects as they interacted.   Trees were coated with a layer of snow and icicles formed.  The snow beneath an ash tree was pitted with falling ice particles.  Temperatures were close to  freezing, with  zones of colder air.  A holly bush seemed to show leaves coated with ice and  sprinkled with snow crystals,  with icicles white with splintering  crystals and air bubbles.    From an ash hung the most delicate icicles, wobbly and  soft, like thread. Close-up photography was tricky: white on white didn't always work.