Frigid Blue

On days like today, with the temperature near zero and the wind coming from the north, it means the chill hits me in the face as I take the picture.  My dog Jack has no view of the river, waits patiently for a bit, then sometimes gives a little whimper.  Hurry up, Dad, it's cold.  At this time of year, bright blue equals frigid.

Crow and Deer

Tim Palmer from America by Rivers, "Because of the glaciers' effectiveness in bulldozing soil, bedrock in New England rarely lies more than twenty feet underground and often juts up to the surface.  Where rivers intersect these ledges and veins of resistant rock, sharp rapids occur."  The far turn downstream from the bridge constitutes a mass of resistant rock, acting as a dam, slowing the water upstream, creating the shallow rapids further down.

Crows haunt the the river.

Deer leave tracks in the center, 

then go to the edge.

Glacial Ottauquechee

The thermometer tonight reads twenty-nine degrees, nearly shirtsleeve weather, except that we expect two to six inches of snow in the next twenty-four hours.

This glacial-like weather spurs contemplation of the real glaciers.  These shaped Northeastern rivers in ways unique on our continent, according to Tim Palmer, author of America by Rivers.  Palmer writes, "The ice left its signature all over the northeastern riverbeds, which in higher country are paved with rounded, gray cobbles and boulders pushed south."  This describes the Ottauquechee.

Running Cold

Nine degrees in the morning as I stood on the bridge. Minus one predicted tonight. 

Ice thickens, water runs 

Beneath the solidity,

Still alive and cold.

Snow Falls

Snowflakes appear like dust motes in this picture, taken at 10 a.m. at the height of Woodstock's storm today.

A river of high moisture had streamed across the continent to meet a lake of very cold air in the northeast, creating a snow fall:  further south epic, here ordinary.

Snow inside and outside the Middle Bridge.

Rock-Eating Ice

A few days ago as the bridge workers wrapped up their job, they threw a rock on the ice just downstream of the bridge to check if it would bear a person's weight.  The term rock-solid could be used for the ice itself that day.  Footprints crossing the center of the river proved it.

Since then, the rock sank day by day, despite the below freezing temperatures.  As of today, it was gone.

The frozen river 

took the stone in slow motion, 

gravity winning.  

Light and Shadow

At two today after light snow fell in the morning, skies had cleared.  Deep blue above, deeper blue shadow below.

The shadow bridge.