Auguries of Innocence*
by William Blake
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
*An excerpt.
icicles
All posts tagged icicles
I couldn't help myself. I just had to try a few more shots.
This will be the last of this sort I post… today… I hope!
I couldn't help it. I simply had to try and improve on the icicle photos I'd made a few minutes earlier. So I hauled out my best camera and shot a few more photos of icicles dripping lit by the day's unexpected brilliance against a shockingly blue sky. I checked my first "second" batch and found the lens had been spattered by drops of water striking the window frame. I blotted the offending drops off the expensive glass and tried again. I guess this was more like a third try. As I write, I hear occasional crashes as the stalactites lose their grip and fall to shatter against the ground. We photograph to preserve the ephemeral; we do it to stop time.
It wasn't in the forecast. Today was supposed to be partly-sunny at best. Instead we awoke to clear skies that, as the day progressed, stayed with us becoming deep blue. The temperature climbed to nearly 40 degrees (F) making the icicles sweat, shrink, and sometimes lose their grip entirely. Now the forecast has shifted… they're saying today will be partly-cloudy, tomorrow mostly-cloudy with a chance of snow. I've got a scheduled open night at the observatory tomorrow night. What will the weather be like? Maybe like today, or maybe some other sort of surprise!
Our house seems to grow a decent crop of icicles just about every winter. This season, however, seems to be an extraordinarily good one for the propagation of giant icy spears. We've seen one, at a neighboring house, that reached from the second floor roofline to the ground. At our own place an icicle has formed a complete column between the icebound eves trough and the garage roof below; at least it is now self-supporting and hopefully placing no more strain on the gutter system! We've been lucky in that large, potentially deadly ice hasn't formed above our entryway as it did at a neighbor's; they actually had a crew come in and knock down the dangerous stalactites! Snow? I guess we've been fairly lucky there, too. While it has snowed just about every day for ever so long, it seems to drop only a few inches of fluff daily. We are able to keep our walk clear with a snow plow-shaped shovel using it to push the snow away instead of having to lift and pile it in ever-growing heaps.
It was another beautiful day today. This time, however, for the first time in weeks the temperature went above freezing — the thaw has begun.
Everywhere I looked the snow has begun to compact and has a mottled or dimpled surface. Icicles are dripping and some are beginning to fall from their perches high above the ground.
I spent most of the day in my office: duty called. So I sadly missed out on hiking in the snowy woods, along icy steams, and letting the sunlight fall on my face. There's some hope I'll get to do some of that this weekend. I'd really hate to miss out on a beautiful, comfortable winter's day.
Standing on the landing with the window open, taking photos of dripping icicles against a blue sky, I turned to discover I was being watched. Tasha was sitting quietly at the top of the stairs in perfect light. She posed and I made a new portrait of her — the best I've ever got of that cat.
PhotonStopper 