Frosty zinnias

The last of the zinnias got kissed by Jack Frost on Thursday morning. In fact, we all did. Temperatures went below zero in the vineyards and in many other places around town. Our thermometer read 1.8ºC, but it's affixed to the house and probably stays a degree or two warmer than the surrounding fields, especially in the shoulder season.

A frosted red zinnia.

I took a lot of photos of the flowers, but none of them came out until I went back outside with the tripod. These came out better, but I was not as patient as I should have been to get good quality images. Photography is art, after all, and it takes patience, expertise, and talent. I have short supplies of each.

The ice crystals on these purple petals make them look like candy.

But I like the pictures, nonetheless. It's a record of the first real frost of the season. People we've talked to have all said it's early this year. I think they're right. I'm sure everyone is thinking that we're in for a cold winter. The national weather service, Météo France, even predicted a colder than normal season. What do they know. They can hardly predict the weekend weather. But still.

I think the orange ones were my favorites. Or maybe the purple ones...

I'm hoping for a normal winter. Not too cold, but not too warm. A little snow, but not much. And no big hurricanes like we had last February. And a nice, lovely spring. Is that too much to ask?

And this will be their last hurrah. I've saved seeds and will plant them again next spring.

This morning, twenty-four hours after I took these photos, the flowers are all brown. The frost was their undoing. All the leaves in the vineyard also quickly changed to orange/golden brown since the frost. It's beautiful, but temporary. Soon they'll all be on the ground.