For a few brief days this past week we had a taste of winter. A smear of overnight snow, frosts, and sunny days. Blink and you would almost have missed it. We’re now heading back into wet, mild, and windy weather as the huge storm that has brought blizzard conditions to the Eastern States of the USA races across the Atlantic to hit the UK – no chance of snow for us, just yet more rain.
On our walk up Leith Hill last Monday (click here to read the Post if you missed it), the mud was frozen solid and water lying in the ruts and footfalls was turned to ice.
I was reminded of two lines from the Christmas Carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’:
‘Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone’
The ice was tinted by mud, lined and fissured. It had a stone like quality visually. And it created intriguing abstracts as the image above, I think, shows.
LensScaper 
Indeed, interesting abstracts!
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Thanks Sue – all nature’s work
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Thank you for capturing the ice, Andy, and in such a nice way. One should never complain about spending the winter in Florida—and I’m not, really—but I do miss the look of ice.
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Thanks Linda. Our neighbours have gone to Florida for three weeks – I rather wish I was there too
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Ice is nice! Sorry, I had to say it.
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‘Ice is nice’ sums it up very well unless you happen to be driving a car or trying to stay upright on a slippery sidewalk.
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That’s one of my favorite carols, and your photo certainly does evoke the lines you quoted. Ice is interesting. It needs something — mud, bubbles, a melting-and-refreezing cycle — to give it that special something that makes it more than just frozen water.
When I first glimpsed the photo, it reminded me of some of our scalloped seashells.
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I can seem the resemblance to sea shells, Linda. Mud on it’s own is yuk, but iced mud can really look photographic – I will be looking out for more!
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Nature’s art, compelling and beautiful. You have a good eye Andy!
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Thanks Adrian – it pays to look down!
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This is a very interesting shot, Andy.I like the colors, and that white-ish line that weaves its way around the frame. And I like how it looks a little bit like polished granite.
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I’m with you with all those findings, Melinda – strange how ice can look like something completely different. Many thanks for the comment.
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Did you see our friend Ehpem’s blog from yesterday: http://burntembers.com/2016/01/27/ice-map/?
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I’ve just taken a look at Ehpem’s entry – remarkably similar. I see contour lines.
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It was an interesting posting coincidence!
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