The old Cathance River Dam is crumbling but still useful. Now that the weather is turning cold again in this odd winter, the water that comes tumbling over sometimes freezes in midair, forming the strangest patterns. Right now, the effect is mild. As the winter progresses, however, the naturally-formed ice sculptures can get quite spectacular, and I will document them as I am able.
Some of the most ghostly shapes occur, and they set my mind
to wondering. You see, I don’t think
that these ice sculptures and ghostly forms are created anew. I think they’ve always existed in the water,
but we just can’t normally see them.
When they’re fluid and flowing with the transparent water, we don’t see
them. Our eyes aren’t clever enough to
pick them out of the water. But the hand
of winter reaches into the deep and cold water and pulls each structure out,
one at a time, and places it haphazardly around the dam and the banks of the
river. Then, suddenly--as if by
magic--we see the ice creatures and we think they’re brand new, but they’re
not. They’re as old as time. They have, just for the moment, assumed their
manifested form.
And then spring will come, and the hand of winter will
recede and steal each one of the ice creatures and place them back into their
primordial form. There they will wait
patiently until they are called again, until the opportunity presents itself
once more for them to manifest yet again.
But in the meantime, in the here and now, the ice creatures
are crawling out of the river at an alarming rate. Enjoy their otherworldly beauty (from a safe
distance) while you can.
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| The ice creatures crawl out of the water. |
