Winter Solstice Human Sacrifices...or not.

The WINTER SOLSTICE has come and gone with the proper sacrifices made. The victim was appropriately George Bush, whose trussed body was lain upon the altar stone and beaten with a sock full of frozen Tootsie Rolls until Dick Cheney's hand popped out. They were then both painted red and sent north across the frozen lake to meet their fate. Eight years too late, but a satisfying image nonetheless.I went down to the lake on the solstice to see what nature had in store for me on this shortest day of the year. It was a stunning revelation in grey. High winds and cold temperatures beginning early on the 21rst and running through the 22nd had piled the surf up on the beach 40 feet beyond the normal waterline and then froze it in several rows of dunes. Now this is a yearly phenomenon, but the surprise here was how quickly it happened, how far inland and how high. The dunes were already about 10 feet high in places and were made up of ice balls of various sizes, from ping pong balls to volleyballs. The end result was an unearthly Jovian vision. A grey-white corrugated icescape for as far as the eye could see. The ramparts of ice blocked the view of the lake, but if one were to climb up a bit of a dune, the brown waves topped with white crests could be seen making their way shoreward. They could not get far, as a shelf of ice has formed along the shore and then a skirt of frozen floating iceballs beyond that would absorb them as they tried to make their way home.The above photo was taken looking down towards Presque Isle. Of course it can't be seen through the snow and gloom. In fact you can barely make out Baer Beach. Now one of the truly amazing things about this place is that three days ago I was down here on the beach working in a T-shirt in near record temperatures in the 60's.The following three photos are of some of the stone cairns covered in ice and snow. On this day I couldn't work as the snow covering made it too hard to find the proper stones for laying the new courses. So, I waited a few days and by Christmas the conditions were much improved for working and I have been able to make significant progress since these photos were recorded. I will post those images next time. Until then, I hope that the new year is an interesting one for you all. Good health...