Two days ago I went for a slog in the woods at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. There was mud of all kinds everywhere. Yesterday the ground was frozen and all crusty. I am about to go out now in a gentle falling snow. Such is the variation of early winter in New England.

Ice is an interesting and varied material. This largely stems from a curious property of water, that it is denser as a liquid (water) at its freezing point than as a solid (ice); hence ice floats. Hence the water in your bottle expands and can crack the container if it is frozen. And hence you can skate on ice. Your weight on your skate blades applies pressure to the ice and causes it to liquify creating a thin liquid water layer to skate upon. This is the phenomenon of regelation and doesn’t happen on, for instance, dry ice or carbon dioxide.

As a result there are so many beautiful patterns in the pond as it melts and freezes multiple times, this time of year. Yesterday the most beautiful were these cracks and swirls on the ice where the day before were rain-filled truck ruts in the mud. I cannot wait to see what wonders today’s walk will bring!