Flowers for Followers

Decided to put up some more ice flower pics since it seems like people really like them. I agree, they are awesome and I wanted to put up more in the first place.








So there they are, a few more flowers for the blog followers. Happy Valentine's Day, I mean Merry Christmas!
Wintergreen

Ice Flowers!

I've seen a lot of ice. From Alaska to Utah, Maine to Montana. We are ice climbers. I've seen a lot of ice, I've never seen ice like this.



Many times I've seen where the ice come up from the ground in long thin hairlike strands which crunch underfoot, they are cool... but not that cool. The ones we saw today were like works of art direct from the master designer. Here's a tiny sampling of the thousands we saw.








Not to take the mystery out of the majestic but here's how it might work, if you want to know read on. It happens when the air is cold but the ground is not yet frozen. Water is trapped in the stem of a plant or on the ground at a plants base. As the water freezes it expands, and burst out of the sides of the plant through long thin seams. From there it wraps into the exquisite petal/flower shapes, and as usual, we gawk in awe of the natural world!