We are constantly surprised and amazed by the natural beauty that surrounds us. My latest surprise had to do with ice. I didn’t find 50 different types (like the Eskimos’ 50 words for “snow”), but I did find some interesting variety while I was out with my camera last week.
We have a creek that cuts across our acreage behind our barn.
It froze over in stages during the couple of weeks of cold weather we had over the holidays. It seems like, depending upon the weather when it froze, it produced different types of ice or frost crystal structures. I’m sure someone has scientific names for them, but I just think of them in terms of the shapes they remind me of.
In this picture there are three different ice forms. There are the ones that look like someone grabbed a white chicken and pulled out a handful of feathers. Next to (and underneath) them are some spiny looking “sticks” of ice. Finally, at the top of the picture is something that looks like grainy snow or frost.
On the banks, a little away from the running water, we see this “pipecleaner” ice form. Here the water crystals condensed around stalks of grass.
Finally, I saw something that was a little like the feathers, but really looked more like little puff balls.
Sometimes several would appear together as here, where the spines and feathers are interleaved again and normal frost coats an ice shelf that hangs over the creek.
Or here again, where there is a little pocket of open water surrounded by different kinds of ice.
The beauty of the ice forms lasts such a short time! Within days it melts with increasing temperatures or it may get covered with snow. The pictures serve as a reminder while the original gets wiped from the workbench so that some new surprise can take its place.
No comments:
Post a Comment