Ice Sculpture

I did NOT go out looking for bugs today. I didn't even want to go out to get the mail today. I think the high was 23ºF and painfully windy (as I write this my weather sensor says it is 0.9ºF. And falling). Not good bug weather. However, while I was out there getting the mail I thought maybe I would check to see what the cricket under the board was up to, and I spotted something interesting:

 This is something I have seen before - ice crystals growing from the ground. You probably can't tell from the picture, but they are at least two inches long. The rock in the upper right of the picture appears to have been pushed up by them. I know there is a name for this kind of ice, but I don't know what it is. It mostly happens when the temperature gets really cold after a lot of rain - in muddy areas, particularly. There were a lot of these crystals around here the winter we built our house, because the building area was dirt, which, of course, becomes mud when it rains, and produces a lot of these cool crystals when it freezes.

As for the cricket, the board was frozen to the ground, so I don't know. It's probably best I leave it alone, though, to preserve what little warmth there is. If there is any.

 We had a powdered sugar dusting of snow yesterday, and it's unusual for that kind of snow to stick around, even if the temperature is a bit below freezing, because the sun will usually melt it. But not today.

I did spot a bug today, as you see. The woolly bear caterpillar living in the package bin has shifted again, as I noticed a couple of days ago, no longer hiding under the leaves. I would imagine it is frozen solid by now.

What a strange existence...