common_nature | Ice Moon & TV Static

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common_nature

A few weeks ago it snowed lightly for some 12 hours. We noticed that there was a dark lump on the lake next to the ice hole created by the lake's aerators. In looking more closely we saw it was one of our resident muskrats, using it to feed. You can see it nibbling in the second photo with the snowflakes going by it.

Days later I was puzzled to see chunks of ice on the lake that made it look like moon rocks. Even more puzzling were the perfect circles on the ice which can be seen in this photo.

The look of the water as the wind blew over them had a really interesting look to it -- rather like TV static (back when antenna reception and non-digital broadcasting was a thing...)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

shadowkat

You live in a lovely area of Indiana. Love the muskrat photos, and the lake.

From:

yourlibrarian

We're on the Illinois side but yes, we often appreciate the sights we get to see from home here.

From:

shadowkat

Ah, the cooler state. For some reason I thought you were in Indiana.

From:

citrakayah

You're right, those do look like moonrocks.

Could they be points where windswept snow accumulated? Perhaps there was a slight dip in the ice so particles of snow rested there. Then additional snow accumulated around the core. There was just enough sun to melt the snow, but it was still below freezing. So it iced together.

From:

yourlibrarian

That sounds as good an explanation as anything I could come up with!

From:

adafrog

Cool.

From:

yourlibrarian

And chilly!

From:

sparowe

Interesting, I don't believe I've ever seen the like!

From:

yourlibrarian

I've no idea what those circles could be either, they seem so perfectly round.

From:

cmcmck

Awww! :o)

From:

yourlibrarian

We saw her out to dine yesterday evening as well.

From:

shirebound

Such interesting sights!

From:

yourlibrarian

Curious and curiouser!

From:

full_metal_ox

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

—the opening line of William Gibson’s pioneering cyberpunk novel Neuromancer; in 1984, the author would still have been thinking in terms of analog broadcast on a cathode-ray tube.

And your little muskrat looks like a moon rising over the waters, in negative:

Edited (to add a thought.) Date: 2025-01-27 04:48 pm (UTC)

From:

yourlibrarian

Ha! And I like that line!

From:

full_metal_ox

I wonder if Zoomer and Alpha readers of Neuromancer envision a cloudless and uncannily blue sky when they read that line.

(Probably not; cyberpunk is the cyborg granddaughter of noir, and people born after ~2000 will have grown up soaking in its tropes.)

From:

pauraque

Neat! The last time you posted a muskrat picture, I said I'd never seen one, but that is no longer true--we saw one swimming on the pond before it froze over this winter. Having seen your photos helped with the ID!