Hail is a form of precipitation, composed of spears or irregular lumps of ice. It occurs when super-cooled water droplets accumulate around a solid object, such as a dust particle. The water then freezes around the object. Hail often forms in strong thunderstorms, often along a cold front, where the layer of air on top is much colder than that on the bottom. The smaller hailstones can bounce up and down between the warm and cold layers due to updrafts and gravity. The longer the stones bounce around, the larger they grow.

Fallen hail had collected in the centre of this yucca plant in my garden. The converging lines of the thick strong leaves disappearing into polystyrene like balls of ice made for an appealing shot.

This image has an almost abstract feel to it, as it takes a few seconds to work out what the objects actually are.

I was very lucky to capture any form of ice, living in Cornwall makes this quite a rarity as our temperate weather is kept in check by the gulf stream.