Ice out

The last official remnant of winter is vanishing from my immediate landscape... the ice in the pond is now gone as of today.

The day before yesterday I went down to see what I might find... the huge slab that had sealed over the pond for the last 4 1/2 months was now broken into several large sections, the largest being about 22 ft long and at least 12 ft wide.

It was fascinating... even something so incredibly large and heavy was still quite easily moved with just a little input.. even the wind was pushing it around the pond ever so gently. I reached down and with just an index finger could move this massive thing around quite easily. It was fun to move so great an object with so little force.
The ice was still about 4 inches thick but very slushy on top... easy to carve away. I began carving out the spiral. I had to be very careful as the top ice was actually very fragile and would easily break away... but the underparts were strong and very clear. Both layers were filled with large bubbles that looked a bit like pearls in the late afternoon light. This shot is from when the sun disappeared behind a wall of clouds and went down... the ice had an eerie almost after-glow to it that does not quite come out in these images, but the reflections of the apple tree were nice. I'll try to post some of the other images from earlier in the day... but I have another deadline right now so that will have to wait a wee bit.