Ice Shine

A big snowstorm was on its way, but it wasn't expected to start until late afternoon. The timing was fortunate; I would get to keep my lunch date with some of my very best friends! We met at the Texas Roadhouse, where we started out with a shared Cactus Blossom appetizer. I tackled some messy but good ribs and fries, while my friends went with salads and tea. We caught up. We talked about music. We laughed some, in spite of it all.

My husband dropped me off at the restaurant - he went and got groceries and snarfed down a pair of McDonald's fish sandwiches, which are on special now here at 2 for $6 during Lent. This is how it works in winter time: we go out and get stuff and do stuff and eat stuff in between the storms. Otherwise, when the roads and conditions aren't so great, we stay home.

It was a quick strike. Just the lunch treats and grocery shopping. My husband picked me up after, and we headed home. He dropped me off by my favorite pond in the Scotia Barrens, and these are the conditions I found.

The pond was covered in a thin surface layer of ice, which was melting quickly before my eyes as the sun hit it. At this point, most of the pond was covered by the ice. I left and went to visit another pond. When I came back through, the ice that is featured in this photo was nearly gone. So these are the ephemeral beauties of winter. Don't blink twice, or you'll miss it!

I will never grow tired of photographing snow and ice. In fact, I have some sort of affinity for ice that I don't really understand. I don't know how I got it. I don't think I was born this way. Rather, I think I BECAME this way. But whatever the origin of my obsession, I do love the ice, and all of what it does with light. It is pure magic, and I am so there for it.

I was standing looking at trees, listening to my music, and admiring the trees' reflections on the knobby ice. The leaves are underneath, and they provide a nice orange base there. A couple of leaves are also sprinkled across the left, for interest. Three leaves, one leaf negative (the black hole where a leaf once was, in a perfect oak leaf shape). And the ice, oh, the ice, in its impressionist beauty, oh how it shines!

My soundtrack song is David Gilmour, with Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Live at Pompeii).