January Thaw

If I was in any doubt that we are having a true January thaw, Blinky the cat's demand to go outdoors early this morning was a sure sign. After shying away from the door for a couple of months, he happily spent much of the day outdoors, pursuing adventure.

Although the January thaw usually arrives in late January according to the Farmer's Almanac, it seems to me that it arrives closer to the beginning of the month. The thaw is a stretch of days when the temperatures are above normal. What that often means is ice as snow melts and as precipitation falls as freezing rain. There's an icy lake on part of my lawn, with the patterns of small animals embedded in it.

Ice on the road reflects some of the light of this morning's beautiful sunrise.

From my garden you can see that a few days of warm temperatures and rain washed away much of the snow. I hope we get more snow as an insulating blanket before temperatures drop again.

A moss-covered rock greeted me as I stepped into the woods, its green intensified by the moisture of recently melted snow.

Today's most beautiful effects in the woods were the iced-over small pools, formed here and there from Saturday's pouring rain. There were layers, more dense and more clear, here showing leaves under the surface.

A thin layer of ice sent out fingers hovering above a lower layer.

Delicately patterned ice catches light in contrast to the dark water beneath, the lacy frozen water similar to the patterns of flow and of reflection. As lovely as this is, I look forward to the ground being once more blanketed in white.