Winter’s Leaves (Minihaha Creek)

17 March 2024 (posted late)

Our not-much-of-a-winter has passed, notwithstanding a few flakes eddying about in the gusty air today.

I went for a run along Minihaha Creek yesterday. The ice is entirely gone, and the muddy spots from the last snowmelt are dry. We’ve not had much in the way of moisture, either snow or rain, and I’m told 80% of the state is in drought conditions. We shall hope for a moist spring, though not so moist as to bring disaster upon the farmers.

It is interesting to look through the columns of the forest, and see, here and there, a tree hanging onto last year’s leaves.

Ice on Minihaha Creek, 2

11 January 2024

I returned to Minihaha Creek five days after my previous visit for a run, and a look at the ice. The snow, not very deep before, has receded, and the fallen leaves arch above its surface, leaving a myriad of little cave-lets speckling the surface. I wonder if there are any organisms — macro or micro — that are adapted to take advantage of these niches.

First Ice Crystals on Minihaha Creek, 2024

5 January 2024

We’ve had a remarkably long fall. Although we’ve had some chilly periods, the temperatures are still tending to edge above freezing during the day, and in the last month we’ve had days that make it into the forties, and even the fifties. We’ve had two light snows: one but a dusting, and the second perhaps an inch, enough to almost bury the downed leaves. So the world is mostly gray and brown: the dully gray winter sky arches overhead, and the grass, trees, and carpet of leaves is brown brown brown. Very dull.

I have been waiting, with anticipation, for the first ice crystals to form on Minihaha creek, where I do most of my runs. I enjoy looking at ice on the creek as the winter progresses. First, most of the water is open, and a crystalline fringe forms along the edges of still portions of the creek. Next, the fringes grow, meeting in a delicate and parlous surface in the middle. As the cold deepens, the ice thickens. In the early part of the winter the ice tends to be crystal clear — although depending on the way in which the crystals form the may make portions of the surface matte white.

Mid-September: Clear Fall Light, Yosemite, etc.

13 September 2023

In my last entry I was sitting outside in full summer, waiting for my car windshield to be replaced, with my hopes for a beer at the nearby Surly brewery dashed by their continuance of ‘Covid-hours.’ Now, abruptly, after a string of hot dry days, fall is here. Oh, leaves have by and large not started to color, but the light has changed. The air is clear of humid haze, and perhaps, as well, the lowering slant of the sun does something to the color of the light.

Mid-March Miscellany

Tuesday, 21 March 2023

The vernal equinox arrived yesterday. And, indeed, for the last week or so there have been days where it’s sunny, a bit of thaw is in the air, and the birds are positively boisterous.

I started running again, after a lapse of nearly a month, and a sparse few weeks before that. There is still a layer of ice on everything, but with the temperature getting above freezing most days, running with spikes works. Minihaha Creek is flowing freely, and I think the period where I will see either ice crystals, or the faintly green algae-infused ice, is past.

March 1 and Slush Season

Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Happy March 1st! There are now some cracks in the shroud of winter. Oftentimes, it seems to me, there is a period of a few days, usually in February, where the birds suddenly become more active. It is perhaps the first real hint of spring — real, in contrast to the phantom spring thaw that often happens in late January.

Ice Crystals on Minihaha Creek

Saturday, 18 February 2023

The winter here has been weird – a couple of sub-zero weeks, a couple of warmish (32ish) weeks, repeat. I run several days a week, mostly along Minihaha Creek, which winds through south Minneapolis. With the variations in temperature there is a lot of thawing and refreezing, and that, combined with changing water levels in the creek, results in marvelous ice crystals. Mostly they are two dimension intergrowths of needle-like crystals, almost fabric-like in their structure.

Droplet Condensation

Wednesday, 25 January 2023

Yesterday morning I went down to the kitchen, and in the process of making breakfast discovered that during the previous night’s kitchen cleanup, I’d neglected a single item: the lid to the steamer. It was face down, one edge on the stove top and the other on the counter, thus giving it a slight tilt. When I picked it up, I noticed a lovely patten of water droplets on the inside of the lid.

Snow Crenellations

Saturday, 17 December 2022

I observed a curious phenomenon on my run today. I have been unable to find an authoritative account or name for it, so I will call them snow crenellations.

Abstract Photos: Structure and Chaos

Saturday 28 May 2022

One thing I enjoy doing is photographing natural patterns. Something about the patterned chaos of nature is very attractive to me. Here are four images from our most recent trip to the north shore of Lake Superior, taken in May 2022.

Here are two images of foam in a backwater on the shore. I like how the precussion of the waves has built up ridges upon ridges of foam – in the first picture it looks almost woven. I like, too, that the threads of foam are in turn inflected by the flow of the backwash as it interacts with shore and rocks.

Here is another image from the same trip. It is a pattern of lichen on a rock. I presume, but do not know, that there are different colonies of lichen contending for the same patch of rock/sun, and that they have arrayed defenses against encroaching colonies creating a bordered patchwork, like a small continent of countries :

From October 2019, brought to mind by the lichen, are some images of a fungus on Maple leaves in Yosemite Valley. I’m intrigued by the speckled brown centers, which I imagine contain sporangia, surrounded by the halos of green (chlorophyll?). These different fungal colonies seem less hostile to one another than in the case of the lichen, since they appear to sometimes merge.

Enjoy.

Freeze/Thaw and Ice Algae

Tuesday 15 March 2022

There should be a name for this season. It warms, and things melt during the day, and then it refreezes at night. The lake is still iced over, but during the day clear pools of water mirror the sky; yet some people still venture boldly onto the ice – I hope they know what they’re doing.