A reward of a frosty morning

It is a thrill to go out on a frosty morning and look for small things with frost on them.

Frost will form on most plants and some mushrooms when nights are calm and temperatures fall below the freezing mark.

Frost will melt away quickly when sunshine hits it or air temperatures rise above freezing. It is important to go outside early because most often frost will be gone by 8:30 or 9 a.m.

I found this cluster of puffball mushrooms the morning of Dec. 20. A puffball mushroom will develop a hole at the top when the spores inside mature. The slightest tap on the puffball will send out a cloud of smoky brown spores.

Since it was close to Christmas, I imagined the big one was singing "O Holy Night."