Back in the beaver ponds the ice is flat and sometimes the water level drops before it can freeze all the way across.
Most years we don’t get to see the ice like this. Most years we have snow and it’s all covered up.
While the ice forms gradually in places like the beaver ponds, it builds quickly below the spillway, where a constant shower splashes onto cold rocks.
Water freezes on everything down here, coating sticks so thickly they either break under the accumulated weight or get swallowed up, not to be seen again until spring.
Eventually this ice will turn milky white, once snow starts mixing in, but it remains crystal clear.
Meteorological winter — the coldest (on average) 90 days of the year — has begun. Embrace it, endure it, or leave. For now, we embrace.
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 
Beautiful!
Swizzle sticks with ready made ice! How nice! And how NECESSARY at the club…
Another fine blog post. Keep up the good work.
simply gorgeous, Quill. thanks for the eye candy !
It’s fascinating to me how something so cold and difficult to walk on can be so beautiful at the same time.
Right up to the point where you find out, as your feet go out from under you, that you can no longer get your arms where they should be fast enough to break your fall.