Spectacular freeze up and some new curtains
(Lou, Yukon) Temperatures have dropped at last. Not far, to -25C, but we are delighted. I don’t know why, as wearing a neck-ring over your mouth and nose that’s frozen with snot and rubs like a cheese grater is not pleasant, nor is having your fingers ache with cold inside your mitts. But the pay-off is that strange, stiff winter beauty. Layer upon layer of hoar frost feathers every surface, the sky is a deeper, crisper blue and the stars seem to blink themselves awake in the brittle night air. Hoar frost at an opening in the creek On our first day of cold, the river suddenly gorged itself with ice. The pans clung together, and began to join the ice shelf advancing sideways into the flowing water from the bank. By afternoon the crackling of ice flows turned to groaning and popping. We got to the bank in time to see water flood under the ice shelf and straight towards us. The shelf lifted, then ground, thumped and shattered itself into huge, perfectly-shap