Frost

We were woken at 5.36 this morning by a shrill beeping. My befuddled brain was thinking "I'm sure I didn't bring my mobile in here last night!" It appeared to be coming from the central heating vent and I'm madly throwing clothes aside in an effort to locate the vent. Then I realised it was coming from above the vent - the window sill in fact. I pulled aside the curtain to find our outdoor thermometer was flashing zero degrees celsius. I must have inadvertently set the alarm to go off when it reached zero. I didn't even know it had an alarm! Eventually I worked out how to turn it off and we returned to bed. "Must be a frosty night" I thought.
I got up at 7.30am and took the camera out into the garden. It had been a doozy of a frost - even the surface of the water bowl (second photo) was frozen! I took quite a few photos and was silently praying for a few things that looked a little sad. The Flanders poppies looked very sad (first photo) but a few hours later they are fine. Not so the Prostanthera magnifica - hours later the tip growths are still bent over as if in prayer. I did remember to throw an old towel over the strobilanthes last night and it is fine: still producing the odd flower now and then. The leaves of the aeoniums appeared to be frozen stiff at 7.30am yet look okay now. They've lasted a few years here so I don't have any qualms about them except the low clumping one called Green Carpet: only time will tell if it has survived.