Hard to believe that Monday we were walking on the ice. This pattern was from the shallow water at the beaver marsh at the north end of the pond. Bonnie spotted it while I was out on the open ice. Moving water, proximity to residual warmth in the ground (shallow) and possibly dissolved solvents (depressing freezing point) can keep areas like this from freezing as solidly as the rest of the pond.

Bonnie and Nainette in the marsh. When I was bringing Nainette back from the Inuit village of Nain, Labrador (northernmost settlement in Labrador) where I'd found and rescued her as a puppy, my friend and crewmate, NY artist Cole Johnson remarked, "She's a climber." Cole raises and trains hunting dogs, so he knew. Oh so right he was. Nainette is like a cat when it comes to climbing.

It has been an exceedingly poor winter for snow, but there are always interesting things to see in any case and Preston Pond never disappoints. This Red Maple leaf has managed to form a perfect depression in the ice. Interesting to ponder on how it did. It isn't heavy enough to sink into the slush during prior thaws (I don't imagine). My guess is a combination of alternating freeze thaw (which we have certainly had), combined with the dark leaf absorbing heat and melting down into slushy ice which then refroze. Open to other suggestions.

I don't know if someone ice fishing made this hole, or if there is a stump under it, but the refreeze pattern is fascinating; almost outer space-like.








I