Brrrrr

First thing yesterday morning saw the temperature dropping to -3.6C



During the day it almost reached +3C with a slightly hazy sky and lots of Sunlight.



At least that meant no more snow but where many footpaths had been clear the day before, snow showers the previous evening gave them a covering again. That soon turned to ice as the snow was compressed by pedestrians. I'm getting good value from the ice spikes this year.

On our morning walkies we had a look down a track between fields



Standing in one field entrance I took a panoramic view looking towards the Lincolnshire Wolds



The 287 feet high tower and steeple of St. James,Louth parish church, was easily visible poking up. (a closer crop of the above photo) I've not seen it so clearly on a photo taken from 6Km (3.7 miles) away.



On the return journey the Winter Sun was casting long shadows



Back home and a quick look at the raised pond complete with alligator and rabbit.



Yes. Frozen over as expected. Looking forward to Monday when temperatures are forecast to rise again. Last night they dipped down to -7.1C. All photos taken with a Canon G5X Mkii.

Blood Pressure and Frosty Ice Crystals

Bit of a rush first thing. This morning Penny had her blood pressure checked. We were booked in for 9.10 a.m. so I left here about 8.30 and took the main roads for a change. Mainly as they were more likely to be ice free and they were. It took a while for the vet to get a reliable BP result while I sat in the car outside twiddling my thumbs. Result - all back to normal levels so we continue with the four tablets every day. Fortunately they are all taken in one session. As they are very small they are easily hidden in her favourite food. Next BP check will be in three months time.

When we returned I could see there was plenty of frost in the areas where the Sun doesn't reach this time of year so I put some under the microscope. A couple of shots:





This time I not only remembered to choose the finest resolution but also chose a 2 second delay between pressing the button and the photo being taken. That gives any vibration time to settle down.

Ice Bubbles

I noticed a plantpot saucer I had left outside had what appeared to be interesting thin ice crystals in the frozen water,



Just the subject for another session with the LCD microscope







This time I remembered that the pixel size for photographs needs setting every time the microscope is switched on.

On further thought these appear to be air bubbles frozen in the ice. The bubbles form as air which is dissolved in the water is released as the temperature drops and gets surrounded by frozen water.

On This Day

30th November 2019 it is







Could have been worse - 30th November 2017 it was

Another Little Ice Sculpture

The small ice sculpture on the pond waterfall I filmed a while ago had melted within a couple of days but very recently a new one has taken its place. Even while we have had night temperatures down to -9C and days when it has remained below zero the birds have continued to use the waterfall for drinking and bathing. The whole of the sides of it are covered with ice formed while the birds have been splashing about.



In places some of the nearby plants are covered in a thick layer of ice where they have been splashed. Starlings are the main culprits in the 'splash it all over' scene as they don't mind how cold water is.



Most interesting, to me anyway, has been the formation of another little sculpture, once again hollow where the running water still flows.



Only a bit of video can show the effect:



On a technical note it is amazing how well modern methods can compress a video. The original clips as taken by the Lumix totalled 225MB but using  a format called H264 this was reduced to under 20MB but still gave a good clear result. It certainly saves on upload time.

Mini Ice Sculpture in the Garden

I leave the pond pump running all year, that is until it freezes up which it does in really cold weather. The water is pumped through an imitation hand water pump and returns to the pond down the mini waterfall. I check it each day this weather to see whether it is still flowing. From a distance yesterday it looked as though it had frozen. When I went closer I saw the water was still flowing but was falling through a ring of ice above the waterfall.



I tried taking a few photographs but none could really show the effect so I took a short piece of video.



As there are frozen splashes of water around the area I guess the scattered water has been freezing while the larger birds have been bathing in the pool at the top of the waterfall.

A bit on the chilly side this morning. -8.1C when we went for our early morning constitutional.