Friday 16 May 2014

The Mystery of Spring Ice

No one knows what will happen or when. Will it break up today or in two weeks. June is not too late for it to break up though it happens earlier many years. Will it just silently slink away or will it crack into huge pieces and be pushed up on the beach by a spring wind? Nobody knows. Mostly no one is going out on it but the other night there were some fellas out to the middle on their ski-doos fishing at a hole. There is still a whack of ice - seems thick in spots out away from the shore. The other day Bella went leaping from pan to pan chasing seagulls. If she'd fallen in it might have been only a foot or two high. But was that to the ground or to the first layer of ice. No one can say.

Last night the fella said to me after dinner - let's go out on the ice, the tide's out - we'll see how it is. Yes, says I. Yes, says Bella. So out we go. And we found a hole in a hole. How does this happen? The ice freezes in layers with there being (some years) a layer of slushy sea water between two thick layers of ice. This happens more often near the shore - I think. I am uncertain of everything you see. At any rate there was a hole where the first ice had melted or cracked or shifted and in it was water and then there was another layer of ice and in that a hole. Here - I'll show you. The dog was most tentative - I was worried she'd fall through that second hole but she would just test the top of it and then not go there. Smart. The fella says she wouldn't have fallen in farther than she is tall so...all the same I'm glad she didn't chance it.




1 comment:

  1. Jan - Lovely shots of the ice, the hole and Bella. And so reflective of life really. We never know exactly when something will happen. So rather than obsess about it, it's better to put our energy elsewhere I think. There's healthy caution of course, and that's important. But the rest? Too much investment I often think.

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