Sunrise # 6: Pancakes in the Morning

I can't get over how much different the Lake is today.

Yesterday morning the water was clear and buoyantly active. Now its entire surface has been utterly stilled by these floating circular formations that stitched together overnight and formed a more-or-less contiguous sheet of ice. The suddenness with which this transformation occurred is startling. After observing yesterday's invasion, it's clear the local water didn't freeze...this stuff floated in from somewhere. So where in the world did it all come from?

As I approached the lake's edge this morning, the air (usually filled with the rushing sound of water) was so still I could hear dry leaves rattling against one another on the tree branches above me. I sat down on the frozen sand and looked into the distance as the sun slowly brightened the sky. The flat vastness of the expanse reminded me of a great salt flat and I felt an urge to walk out onto it. Every once in a while a almost inaudible high-pitched crinkling sound echoed over the frozen plane, and then...did the whole sheet just rise? It was as if the Lake had morphed into a gigantic organism...and I could almost see it breathing.

Some geese flew over...

And nearby a small bird of prey darted after and eventually tackled a duck (don't worry...I didn't take a picture of that). Nature's justice I guess.