It was foggy Wednesday night, so much so that on my way home from work, I turned on the car’s fog light. This is a thing new to me since I emigrated to Ireland. It’s one blindingly red light under just one taillight at the back of your car, and it shows up really well in the fog. I didn’t have anyone come up behind me to test how well it worked. I could see that the cat’s eyes in the road behind me were now blood red. Did you know that the cat’s eye centre marker was invented by an Irishman? Now you do.

Anyhoo. The thick fog and 1° C temp meant that the car was covered in a thin sheen of ice on Thursday morning. It wasn’t a bother to me. I lived in Ohio for years, so a skin of ice is nothing at all. Snow deep enough to cover your license plate? That’s a bother.

But back to the ice. It was dammed beautiful from inside the Mini. I got in, sat down and said wow.

I’d already started the car so had to rush like mad to take these before the defroster melted it away.

The short and beautiful life of windscreen (windshield) frost.