Ice and botany

No snow. But I can offer instead some ice and a rare botanical background.

Look carefully at these icicles and you will see that each one has a dry grass stalk in the middle around which the ice has formed.

This limestone cliff face along the edge of the estuary has a tiny spring at the top of it. All year round the cliff face is damp as water trickles down the cliff face.

This combination of limestone and moisture provides the perfect conditions for one of the rarest plants in our area. This is the Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris). This site and one across the estuary are, I believe the most northerly places in the UK in which it can be found.

If you look behind the icicles you may see tiny seedlings.

Now look at the extra and you can see the main plant. It has done very well in the past year. Some years it is damaged by spray from incoming storms.