Nicicles
Here are three abstract views of nicicles (nice icicles) from February 17th in our yard.
You may be aware that the Icelandic word for ‘glacier’ is jökull. That’s the cognate [i.e. linguistic relative] of the -icle part of icicle. The original word that -icle was a diminutive of meant ‘ice,’ so icicle says the same thing twice. If we had the word wetwater it would be the same sort of redundancy. On another score, the only words in English that rhyme with icicle appear to be bicycle and tricycle; leave those vehicles out in a winter storm and you could end up with many a bicycle icicle or tricycle icicle.
© 2021 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
The large one in the first looks like a carrot.
Steve Gingold
March 2, 2021 at 7:13 AM
Agreed. Had this been April 1st, I might have colored that icicle orange.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 7:19 AM
Great photos of your nicicles, Steve! You are a master of photography and a juggler of words.
Peter Klopp
March 2, 2021 at 8:10 AM
Just as long as I don’t try juggling with my camera…
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 8:35 AM
Nice nicicles, Steve. 🙂
Eliza Waters
March 2, 2021 at 9:21 AM
Doubly nice of you to say so.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 9:36 AM
Abstract perfection or perfect abstraction, or simply brilliant!
marina kanavaki
March 2, 2021 at 10:43 AM
I approve both possibilities: abstract perfection and perfect abstraction. Ice does tend to be brilliant, doesn’t it?
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 2:32 PM
Impeccably brilliant!!!! 😉
marina kanavaki
March 2, 2021 at 2:50 PM
Impeccably and implicitly so.
Impeccable, with its negative prefix, occurs way more often than the more-basic peccable, which many native English speakers don’t even know exists. I’d be proved linguistically peccable if I didn’t point that out:
https://onelook.com/?loc=dmapirel&w=peccable
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 2:57 PM
Lichenicles, Steve? Or simply nicicle reflections?
tanjabrittonwriter
March 2, 2021 at 10:50 AM
There are indeed green lichens at the top of the first picture and encased in the ice in the upper part of the second picture.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 2:34 PM
Very neat!
tanjabrittonwriter
March 2, 2021 at 4:42 PM
I photographed plenty of ice-encased lichens. Another example is the second picture at
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/more-ice-pictures/
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 6:37 PM
I love the pure clarity of these icicles. That splash of green and deep amber color is nice too! It’s still hard to believe you got to experience a winter storm so far south. Good for you to get out there and make the best of it!!
Littlesundog
March 2, 2021 at 10:53 AM
What else could I do but make the best of it? I certainly suffered for the pictures I took and have been showing.
The tree people finally made it here today; for the last three hours they’ve been removing broken limbs and cutting down tree branches and leaning trunks that overhang the house.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 2:46 PM
Great shots. Icicles are so photogenic, aren’t they? Looking forward to the admission of “nicicles” in the American Heritage Dictionary. 🙂
Tina
March 2, 2021 at 11:08 AM
Winter after winter I’d been seeing ice and icicle pictures from people up north and wishing for the chance to join in the photographic fun. Well, I finally got a crack at those photogenic things. Whether the American Heritage Dictionary will crack open its pages and admit nicicle remains to be seen.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 2:50 PM
Ooooh, first photo’s awesome!
Ms. Liz
March 2, 2021 at 6:35 PM
Thanks. Happy awe to you.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 7:20 PM
Great shots, Steve. Fascinating shapes and light.
Jane Lurie
March 2, 2021 at 8:58 PM
And something we rarely get to photograph in this normally warm climate.
Steve Schwartzman
March 2, 2021 at 9:25 PM
So sorry Texas was so hard hit. Hope you are doing ok.
Jane Lurie
March 2, 2021 at 10:23 PM
It was quite an ordeal—one I wouldn’t want to live through again. At least some pretty pictures came out of it.
Steve Schwartzman
March 3, 2021 at 4:40 AM
If you play Monopoly or craps in a freezing rain, you might have dicicles. If you need herbs from your garden, you’d have spicicles. If your cat has been out hunting small rodents and/or if it has tiny skin parasites–well, never mind. That central white vein in your third image is especially intriguing.
krikitarts
March 3, 2021 at 12:18 AM
Someone beat you to Spicicle, which I see is a kind of craft beer:
https://www.owenolearys.com/owens-craft-beers/
I think the central white vein in the third image is an artifact of my ring flash. It’s unusual and didn’t seem discordant, so I left it in.
Steve Schwartzman
March 3, 2021 at 4:46 AM
And speaking of Monopoly: I played it a lot when I was a kid, but now it’s been decades since my last game. The most recent connection to it I remember is that in 1985 in Barcelona I bought and brought home a local version in Catalan. Broadway, for example, is replaced by Passeig de Gràcia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passeig_de_Gr%C3%A0cia,_Barcelona).
Steve Schwartzman
March 3, 2021 at 5:19 AM
I did look at prior comments and did not (and still don’t) see any other mention of spicicle. And, by the way, we played it in German in Berlin. Broadway (it was Boardwalk in the version we played in the US), was Schloßallee.
krikitarts
March 3, 2021 at 3:37 PM
I made a thinko: you’re of course right that it’s Boardwalk, which I see Schloßallee translates to.
Steve Schwartzman
March 3, 2021 at 5:29 PM
I meant that somebody out there in the world, not in these comments, thought up spicicle.
Steve Schwartzman
March 3, 2021 at 5:33 PM
The diagonal placement in the center photo is intriguing. It certainly caught my eye, and led to a few minutes of head-tilting and gravity-pondering. I finally decided the hand of the photographer had done the tilting rather than the hand of nature, but in either case, I like it.
Now I’m thinking about carrots. The first large icicle does resemble a carrot, but now I’m wondering what it is in the development of carrots that leads some of them to have that bumpy, multi-sectional appearance. Something has to be in play, because many carrots are quite smooth.
shoreacres
March 3, 2021 at 8:03 AM
The middle photograph is an example of something I occasionally do: disregard a subject’s true orientation in space and rotate the camera until I see something in the viewfinder that fills the frame nicely. So yes, it was the hand of the photographer that did the tilting.
You’ve raised an interesting metaphysical question about the different shapes carrots can take as they develop. I wonder if botanists or horticulturalists know the answer.
Steve Schwartzman
March 3, 2021 at 8:12 AM
In the last image, I see a person who climbed a rope up to the top and is reaching higher! Could be reaching for the stars or Heaven. 😀😎Very cool abstract.
circadianreflections
March 4, 2021 at 6:19 PM
I see what you mean about that stylized, wispy white person at the top of the icicle. The “rope” and the “person” are actually artifacts created by my ring flash, which has to get the credit for stimulating your imagination.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2021 at 7:31 PM
😀
circadianreflections
March 5, 2021 at 9:40 AM
These unusual and shiny shapes are so well defined from the black background.
denisebushphoto
March 12, 2021 at 2:34 PM
Agreed. And for once I got to poach on your winter territory.
Steve Schwartzman
March 12, 2021 at 3:47 PM