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Memories of Jack Frost! - Penny Snowden


I’ve been brought back to my childhood this week. When I was a child in those unheated house times, it was common to find patterns of frost on the windows in the morning.


Examining these intricate patterns was magical - like entering another world. These are often leaf-shaped with tiny details on them and I saw them again recently and with the sun shining through them they were beautiful.



Then there’s the frosted edges of plants that look like decorations and the trees turned white and walking out into the crunch of frosty ground.


I wondered where the term ‘Jack Frost’

comes from. One version is the

Scandinavian legend that relates that the

son of the god of the winds was the visitor

bringing frost; he was variously named

Jokul and Frosti, the first name meaning

icicle and the latter frost. Eventually

the two names were combined in English

to become the folk character “Jack Frost"



Jack Frost

by Cecily E. Pike


Look out! look out!

Jack Frost is about!

He's after our fingers and toes;

And, all through the night,

The gay little sprite

Is working where nobody knows.


He'll climb each tree,

So nimble is he,


His silvery powder he'll shake;

To windows he'l creep,

And while we're asleep,

Such wonderful pictures he'll make.


Across the grass

He'll merrily pass,

And change all its greenness to white;

Then home he will go,

And laugh, “Ho! ho! ho!

What fun I have had in the night!”



Thank you Penny.

This past few weeks we as a family have certainly have revisited the visits of Jack Frost and in an unheated house, the icy intriguing patterns and iced up windows. Brrrwwww! Cold!

Memories of frosts are powerful and beautiful too. Remember those no central heating days, drawing the fire in the mornings with a sheet of newspaper or sometimes a metal sheet and hot water bottles ( I still detest hot water bottles!) No wonder we had winter nightclothes, winter curtains and a rare treat was undressing in front of the fire! Much to thank God for and the sharing of stories from our past!

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