The other day clumps of snow fell off the trees in lines, producing some interesting effects. More photos below the cut; click to show individual images. Continue reading “Snow clumps”
So have some pictures with ice.
Where did the time go? Well, some of it went to walking in the woods.
We’ve had rather a lot of it, haven’t we? Today it’s raining and the snow is super-saturated and heavy (this is the Voice of Experience speaking, as I went out and shovelled) and it’s altogether miserable and nasty. And yes, I know that it will melt, but it WILL MELT A LOT FASTER if one shovels. Continue reading “Weather”
It’s been more cold than not for a month or so now, and that means ice on puddles. And I love taking pictures of ice. So here’s a start, from recent excursions.
The ice is pretty thick; this chunk, tossed up previously from a puddle, is a couple of inches thick. (And today I caught Our Dog walking across the ice on the slough—argh.)
You find interesting things in the woods sometimes; this bucket was left by someone working on an unofficial trail. As far as I could see the ice in it was solid all the way down.
And it’s so varied, especially when we start getting a bit of hoarfrost.
Gorgeous.
From yesterday’s walk in the woods.
From a couple of days ago.
We live in a dampish area, and if it gets cold there’s a section of our yard that tends to grow hoarfrost. Which it did over the past few days, very satisfactorily. These were taken yesterday—today it’s gone, alas.
To celebrate, pictures of frost flowers from the last hike of 2015: proof that beauty can expand from the most ordinary beginnings.
And a few other things.
The dew on the needles had frozen overnight and was just starting to melt, so if I bumped into a tree I got showered in tiny ice pellets.
There were also pretty stumps…
And broken trees…
This broken tree trunk was so interesting I took a black and white picture too.
An altogether satisfactory morning walk.
Well, yes, actually, this is the trail.
And so is this. Winter hiking is when you find the weak points in your Goretex footwear liners.
Bonus photo: ah, the soothing quiet of the forest… but hark, what is that sound? Ah yes. The mobile mulcher eating another stick.
They’ve been pretty spectacular lately. (Though not today; today it’s cold, it’s pouring with rain, and to be honest I’m avoiding excursions.)
Well, it has green reflections from the cedar, at any rate.
Pretty, pretty.
I know spring is here—I’ve been taking pictures of the early flowers—but I’m not quite ready to give up on pictures of ice.
It’s going to be a monsoon tomorrow, let’s post pictures of ice.
I forgot to turn off the pond pump when it got really cold this winter. I did remember before any harm was done, but in the meantime—ice lumps where the pump spits water into the little “waterfall.” The pond water is very tannic, so some of the lumps have some interesting colour highlights. Continue reading “Ice lumps”
Thought I should post some pictures of less catastrophic things so that it’s clear it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
