Somewhat milder today at 0°C but still a dull, grey day. It is the first new moon of 2021, known as the Capricorn moon. I think the odds of us not being able to see it tonight are probably pretty high…sigh.
The lake was calm again today and I think that provided a chance for the ice to connect in the channel from the shore of Snake Island to us here on the mainland in our little community of Island Grove. Perhaps I’m the only one that finds this evolution fascinating. I think so many of us take these sort of occurrences for granted as we’re mostly conducting our lives on auto-pilot. There is something to be said for authentically living in the moment and being present.
Here you can see the open water to the left of the photograph and the icy crescent forming to the right. I’m looking forward to snow-shoeing out to the island once I see the ice fisher-people out in their huts. It’s about a mile away, so good exercise.
In this second photograph I was trying to capture these incredible two inch thick shards of crystal clear ice that form when the water temperature is just right while the lake is perfectly calm. They then start to break up at the shore as the winds pick up, gathering in clumps by the docks. Sometimes closer to April when the lake starts to thaw, there is a phenomenon that causes massive ice floes to break up and come ashore. It’s almost an ice Tsunami moving with such force, crushing any structure in its path. I have some photographs of this from previous years that I’ll share with you in a couple of months.
