Some real winter

This week we are getting some real winter weather. The highs are below freezing and the lows are in the low teens or in single digits. The river has ice on it, but where the water flows it it open. It would take much colder weather than we will get to freeze it over so that it was safe to walk on.

The quarry has a nice display of icicles. 

 The pond at SJC has ice that may be thick enough to walk on, but I was not willing to try. Yesterday it definitely was not safe. The ice has interesting ridges. Perhaps it partially froze one day and then completed the freeze on another.

 The ice rink at Iroquois Park has a plastic border and a sign inviting skaters.

 I used to have ice skates but a few years ago when there was skate-able ice I tried them out and found that my limited ice skating skills had deteriorated to the point where it was no longer safe for me to be out there. I never was very good. I grew up in Minnesota, but my early years were in small towns in southern Minnesota where no ice was available and no one skated. Then I moved to the central part of the state and the town had an ice rink. I struggled to learn. When I went to high school, there were a number of very good skaters--my tiny school had a hockey team. The kids from the northern part of the state were very good skaters, but then they had winter nine months of the year.

The ice has leaves embedded in it. They will not affect skating this week, but when it gets a bit warmer, they will catch heat from the sun and cause interesting melt differences.

If you have some skates, take advantage of the good ice. It will not last long.