WiseAcre Gardens

Ice crystals that formed around the entrance of this ‘snow tunnel’ conceals how it was made.

Another hole entrance in this pic is nearly frosted over.

These frosted openings are actually deer tracks in the snow. Nearby a ‘bubbling brook’ fed by melting snow flows mostly unnoticed under the snow. In random spots the brook flows exposed in pockets the snow hasn’t been able to blanket. A standoff with the cold has left the water flowing under a thin sheet of ice.

Trapped in the ice are frozen bubbles.

Mother Nature is still blowing bubbles under the ice. Frozen bubbles lay trapped on the left while newly formed bubbles crowd the frozen edges, some of which will combine, break free and be pushed downstream under the ice. What appears to be water flowing is actually a thin wavy crystal clear layer of ice.

In another spot bubbles traveling under the ice have reached a bottleneck. As the water current swept the bubbles along they moved among themselves that reminded me of those videos of petri dish cultures.

Too late now to get a video. It’s 51 F. and raining today. That thin sheet of ice is no match for today’s weather. No sweat though, by Friday we’ll be back to zero F nights. I have no doubt the ice will return.

The bubble photos are linked to a larger sized image (1024 x 768) for a closer look or to use as desktop wallpaper.