After more than 3 months of warmer than average temperatures we’ve finally had a real taste of winter here, with a few inches of snow and a couple of days and nights of bone chilling cold. The cold I could do without but it’s hard to imagine anything more beautiful than freshly fallen snow decorating everything in the forest.
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) branches catch so much snow that there is often bare ground under them a day or two after a storm. That’s why white tailed deer bed down under them. Years ago when I smoked I used to stand under a big old hemlock in the front yard when it rained, and even in a downpour barely a drop of rain reached me.
I don’t know what it is but there is something about the hill on the far side of Half Moon Pond in Hancock that seems to attract sunshine. I have no way to explain what I’ve seen here but even on cloud covered days the clouds will often part to let the sun shine on it. I hope to climb it one day. Maybe the sun will shine while I take photos for a change.
This photo is deceiving because even though the sun had just risen above the hills behind me it looked like it was rising behind the hills in the distance. It’s one more thing I can’t explain about how the light and shadows play on Half Moon Pond and the hills that surround it. Odd things happen here. This photo was taken in January just as the pond had frozen over, and what looks like water in the distance is actually glare ice.
Wind plays a big part of winter and it can often mean the difference between bearable and unbearable temperatures, but how do you show it in a photo? This is one way; the prevailing winds showed these cattail leaves which way to grow.
Some see winter as dark and bleak and colorless, but there is much color and beauty to be seen if they’d only look around a little. I love how the white snow makes water look so inky black. If it hadn’t been so cold I could have stood there longer, admiring it.
The sun promised a warm day but it was a bitter cold morning when I stopped to get a shot of it with my cell phone. It did turn out to be a warm day in spite of the morning cold, though. In fact most of them have been on the warm side this winter, but not all; we’ve seen night temperatures drop to -15 ° F (-26 ° C.) Interestingly on this, one of the coldest mornings of the season, I heard the sad but beautiful Fee Bee mating call of the male black capped chickadee. Now I’m sure that spring is just around the corner, no matter how much more winter we see.
When the water level of the river dropped it left a skirt of ice around this stone. Then the sun warmed the stone and the ice skirt melted into an icy finger that reached around it from its back side. I’m sure the icy finger had to attach to the stone somewhere, but it wasn’t anywhere that I could see. It must have been on the far side which I couldn’t get to because the river was so close.
Another view of the icy finger, which looks to be just about ready to tickle the stone.
Canada geese don’t seem to mind the cold. They appear to act the same, winter or summer, though I usually see them in flocks rather than pairs.
As usual one stood guard while the other fed.
The stones at the base of Ashuelot Falls in Keene were ice covered, but since it was only about 15° F, I wasn’t surprised.
Downriver from the falls ice pancakes were frozen into the ice covered surface. This view also shows the needless cutting of all the shrubs along the riverbank, most of which were silky dogwoods that robins and cedar waxwings enjoyed eating the berries from. The same thing happened last summer along the Ashuelot in Swanzey. I think this is driven more by ignorance than for any other reason, but I didn’t know that this kind of ignorance was so widespread. I’ve heard that the Army Corps of Engineers has been here studying the dam for possible removal so the bank clearing might have something to do with that, but why they would need to cut everything so far from the actual dam is a mystery.
Ice pancakes, according to Wikipedia, can grow to nearly 10 feet in diameter and can have a thickness of nearly 4 inches. Each pancake has an elevated rim that forms when the frazil ice or slush that it is made from bumps up against other pancakes. Since these one foot diameter examples were frozen into the river ice I think they were done bumping together, at least for now.
Since these formations didn’t have raised rims I’m guessing that they weren’t pancake ice. They looked more like paving stones.
I saw a kind of ice that I’ve never seen before. What I can only describe as light colored frost feathers grew all over the darker ice of a stream.
This is a closer look at the frost feathers from a photo taken with my cellphone. I wonder if anyone has ever seen something similar. Many of them stood vertically on the ice of the stream. I can’t imagine what caused them to form unless it was very high humidity on the surface of the stream ice.
A stone was trapped in the ice near the formations in the previous shot but since it probably wasn’t going anywhere I doubt that it cared. It’s interesting how the sun seems to warm some stones enough to melt the ice on them but others stay coated in it.
Nature laid the universe at my feet but I was too blind to see it until I looked at the photo I took of this puddle ice. It was only then that I saw the stars, asteroids, galaxies and distant nebulae, almost as if I was looking at a photo taken by the Hubble telescope. As Edward Abbey once said: There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere. To that I’ll add: Even in mud puddles.
So far this winter has been an upside down one; warm enough to get sap flowing and witch hazel blooming before a bitter below zero cold snap and then 50 degrees and rain yesterday. When spring finally does get here there’s no telling how plants will react to such an overall warm season. My feeling is that they’ll be fine, but we’ll have to wait and see. The first thing nature teaches is patience.
There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance. ~William Sharp
Thanks for coming by.
Some really lovely winter photos, especially the only water surrounded by snow and the sunrises. I don’t envy you the cold but the ice and snow I do. We never get ice pancakes or feet of snow and I’d love to see it for real, as long as I was wrapped up warmly.
If you visited Canada at this time of year you’d probably be very surprised!
Such beautiful photos, Allen…I do have quite an affection for the forests and streams with their snow covers and accompaniments. I’ve not seen ice feathers that you presented above, but on a few of my hikes along stream-beds, and even up in the mountains where the humidity was somehow quite high, I found what we could call beds of hoar frost that had what must have been thousands of flat, feather-like blades, some of which were nearly an inch high. I rubbed my hand over them to have another sensory experience, and when they fell over, it sounded like the tinkling of tiny pieces of glass falling into each other. It was amazing…fascinating….
Thank you Scott. I hope you get to occasionally see snow there in the desert. Ice can come in so many different shapes and it’s always fascinating to me to see how it has grown. I think I know that tinkling sound that you speak of. When I was a boy I used to ride my bike through the white ice on mud puddles and it made a strange tinkling sound too. It’s a sound I’ve never forgotten and I’d bet that you’ll never forget the sight and sounds of the crystals that you saw. It’s an amazing and beautiful world out there!
I apologize for the late response, Allen…but you are most welcome…. We do get some snow down here…not in the valley where I live, but up on the bordering mountains and sometimes in the northern desert. And you’re correct…the sounds of those little ice feathers tinkling against each other are there in my noggin’ for good…with many thanks to that amazing and beautiful world out there!
Your Half Moon pond is really lovely – the sun on the hill behind it and the reflection of the sunrise behind you. I have never seen most of the ice formations you see regularly and this post is full of them as well as the beautiful ice feathers. Thank-you Allen.
You’re welcome and thank you Clare. That pond really is pretty, and some very unusual things happen there with light. I’m looking forward to seeing it in spring, which I’ve never done.
I like the odd ways ice forms and I’m always on the lookout for ice formations I’ve never seen before. The trouble with finding things like the frost feathers is finding out anything about them afterwards, like how and why they form. There doesn’t seem to be much literature on ice.
I find it surprising that there isn’t much ice literature when so many people seem to be fascinated by it. You have certainly captured its beauty in your photographs.
Thank you again. I think my problems finding information about ice comes from not knowing what to search for online. “Frost feathers” brings up some beautiful images but none seem to match what I saw.
That is the problem with on-line research – we all seem to start from the wrong end. We need some cross-referencing!
I agree!
🙂
Ice pancakes – I never heard that term. Sounds like it should be some kind of dessert.
It would be a cold one!
Beautiful pictures of the ice and snow and a lesson to appreciate everything around us whatever the weather. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. Yes, each season has its own beauty.
Gorgeous winter shots! I especially love all the strange and beautiful ice pictures.
Thank you Jane. Ice is often strange and always beautiful!
Frost feathers! Love these. Now I will have to look to find some. Do you think they are formed when the water is warmer than the air? I saw lots of shots of “water smoke” forming on the lakes and ponds when we had that cold snap.
Thanks Martha. There was ice on the stream so I’m not sure if water temperature had anything to do with it or not. I wanted to get shots of that water smoke too, but I didn’t see any. Maybe we’ll have another cold snap!
It is indeed beautiful!
I think so too!
What a wonderful variety of beautiful photos! I’m happy that not every one was so put off by the last two extremely cold winters that they hibernated like I have. Loved the feathery ice, I’ve never seen that before either. The area around Half Moon pond is almost magical, especially the lighting, I do hope that you have the chance climb the hill, and spend more time there in general.
The way that water freezes and interacts with other things around it, like the rocks, is always interesting, as is the pancake ice. Pancake ice also forms in the Great Lakes, but there has to be a calm stretch of weather for that to happen, I’ve seen it, but never with a camera with me.
Thanks Jerry! Those last two winters were hard to take but this one has been mild in comparison here. My problem is finding enough time to be out there since it’s dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. I’m hoping that I can climb that hill sometime this summer, in warmer weather.
That’s interesting that the pancake ice forms in calm water on the lakes. This area is just below a waterfall, but off to the side where the water is calmer.
I know how it is for work to interfere with a person’s true love. We had our second sunny day of the year yesterday, and I ended up working 11 hours. No time left for a walk, I got out a little earlier today, but the clouds have rolled back in.
The chickadees are Fee Bee-ing here in Maine, too. Most of the snow melted after a day of warm southern wind, and today was gloriously spring-like. I’ve never seen frost feathers like those. Such a striking contrast of black and white.
We were warm yesterday but today was more winter like. We had heavy rain and that washed most of the snow away.
I’m going to have to pay closer attention to see if those kinds of ice formations happen regularly. I’ve never seen them before either.
I’m glad your chickadees are singing for you. That’s one of my all time favorite bird songs. It always gives me spring fever when I hear it.
The ice feathers are amazing. I would like to see a sight like that.
Thank you. I’m glad you and others like seeing them. I had to climb down a steep embankment to get shots of them and almost went had first onto the ice. If that had happened I probably could have gotten some better close-ups.
Probably just as well that you didn’t dive in.
Allen, your documenting the ice “skirt” around the boulder reminds me of one of my favorite winter phenomena — the momentary “January thaw” with accompanying rain, which causes the rivers to spill into their floodplains. Then a couple days later comes the snap freeze, leaving each tree in the floodplain girdled by ice skirts. As the underlying floodwater recedes, those skirts begin to drop away, filling the environs with the sound of tinkling ice upon the dropping ice floor beneath. The “noise” can be as all-encompassing as that of spring peepers, and sometimes punctuated by the “craack” of the deck itself shearing as the water beneath silently drains away. . . . That would be a normal winter, but this year has brought none of that. Thanks for the reminder.
You’re welcome Richard. I know exactly what you mean. If you start at the KSC athletic fields and walk the rail trail south to Matthews road there are low places where the river does exactly what you describe, and I used to love going to see and hear it when I was a boy. That white puddle ice must form in the same way, though I’m not sure where the water goes. It makes the same tinkling sound.
For me, the simple beauty of winter provides a quiet ecstasy. I really resonate with that Abbey quote. Thank you for this — and all your posts.
You’re welcome, and thank you very much Pat. I’m not a great winter lover but it does have a certain silent beauty that no other season can match. If I didn’t have to shovel my roof I’d enjoy it a lot more.
Ice pancakes, frost feathers, distant nebulae….this post had it all. Thanks so for the beautiful walk – a nice change from the not-yet-blooming desert that is my view these days.
Thanks Judy. It’s just amazing what you can see out there!
I’d love to see the desert, even if it wasn’t blooming. You’re very lucky to be able to see it.
I saw “frost feathers” for the first time Monday morning with my fitness hiking group. They are so beautiful, and I’m glad I had my camera with me! The minus 3 degree temp my car was registering on the ride to Hollis at 8:30 am made me question my sanity, but I was glad I went. At the end of our almost 5 mile hike, we were all very warm!
Thank you Paula. I’m glad someone else has seen them! I agree, they are beautiful. They must happen all the time and I just haven’t seen them before.
I don’t go out in anything below 10 degrees because my cameras start acting up if it’s too cold, but I’m sure the hiking kept you plenty warm enough. It does me too!
Wonderful winter scenery. The backside of sunrise often has the best color as in the half moon pond shot. Especially like the trees and reflections, hard to choose favorites they all are great.
Thanks Grampy! I’ve gotten up before sunrise for many years but haven’t had any time to be out taking photos at that time of day until recently. It’s a magical time, as you know.
I so enjoy your blog! I love the simple beauty and information you bring to it!
Thanks very much Nancy.
I hope this blog inspires you and others to get out there and see this beauty for yourselves.
There has been little of true winter round these parts this year so it’s nice to be able to share some of yours. Thanks. 🙂
You’re welcome Ben.
Normally I’d say that we have more than enough and you could have all you wanted, but that isn’t really true this year.
Absolutely love your vision of the stars, asteroids, galaxies and distant nebulae, in the iced up mud. Thank you
You’re welcome, and thank you.
Great images, I really like the frost feathers. I’m glad the bitter cold is done for now. It really has been an odd winter.
Thanks Laura.
I’ve never seen those frost formations before but they probably grow like that all the time.
I’m glad to see that cold go too!
Lovely pictures of snow and ice and that sunrise was something else, what a treat.
Thank you Susan. Winter can be beautiful!