Hoar Frost in Otago, South Island

My good friend, John, who works for Parenting with Confidence, often heads off to other places and towns for seminars over the weekend, and sent me these photos he took of hoar frost in Central Otago, where he's been recently. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
They remind me of a poem by one of my favourite poets, Christina Rosetti:
In the bleak midwinter, Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.





Those little touches of pale gold in the middle of the photos, where the house is, are heartening are they not?