Frosty

Last Monday was the last day of a two-weeks-straight frost spell, and I had a look around outside.

Frost itself can be stupendously pretty when you get up close:

Those were taken at the edges of the university parking lot. Since that one is pretty close to the Moselle, and since I'd heard that this not unimportant water-street had been closed for ships due to ice, I went and had a look. I stuck around for a short while, and saw an icebreaker pass through to push the floes around.

I can hardly believe it. Never seen anything like that before. Just for comparison I took some photos the day before yesterday, and yesterday as well:

And I got lucky in another way. I not only saw a kingfisher, but I even caught a photo! :D The photo's not good, but here it is, anyway

On the way home I decided to have a look at the Wied, a small river - I don't think anything bigger than a kayak goes there.

Excluding a few spots, it was frozen solid. Two people were ice skating - ON THE RIVER, I TELL YOU! I've never seen a river completely frozen before. And, well, while I don't even have ice skates, I did take a walk. It did turn out a nice day for birdspotting here, too.

Around the edges I found some more wonderful ice and frost structures. I couldn't really capture any properly... They were so amazing. You could see the water had been higher when the first layer of ice formed, then ther was another layer underneath that formed with lower water, and the structures that formed between, and the air bubbles, and the light, and the frost growing on the edges. Breathtakingly beautiful.

Nature is fucking amazing. :D