Nice ice thrice

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Last week you saw a picture of the frostweed ice I spent a couple of hours photographing on December 11. In a later post that showed a deer’s antler I mentioned a repeat performance of the ice on the morning of December 12. On those days the afternoons warmed up seasonally, and on December 18 and 19 we had record highs of at least 80°. Then, in a reversal, a cold front blew in, and on the solstice morning of December 21 my outdoor thermometer showed that the temperature had dropped close to freezing. I wondered if the frostweed could have produced a third round of ice, and when I checked the location in Great Hills Park that I’d gone to the other two times, I found that it had. Lucky me! This was the first time I’ve ever photographed frostweed ice three times in one season (even one fortnight, as the British say).

I don’t know if any of the affected plants this third time were among the ones that had produced ice on either of the other two mornings. I would’ve had to mark all the plants I saw the first time, and that amount of work would have taken me away from what I was there for, which was pictures. And speaking of that, look at how different the ice in today’s photograph is from the ice you saw last week: this time it spreads farther out and is much more irregular. Vive la différence!

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman