Tag: cold

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Ice on an April morning

On a cold morning the receding tide leaves a film of ice on the seaweed and rocks along the shore. Nova Scotia is blessed with natural shorelines like this, a haven for wildlife which is threatened by development.
On a cold morning the receding tide leaves a film of ice on the seaweed and rocks along the shore. Nova Scotia is blessed with natural shorelines like this. It's a haven for wildlife, but threatened by development. More about that in future posts. We feel fortunate to live along an undeveloped coastline.
Ice forms patterns on two species of seaweed.
Ice forms patterns on two species of seaweed.
Chunks of heavier winter ice are heading out to sea, temporarily caught in the overnight freeze, soon to be melted by the warming spring sun.
Chunks of heavier winter ice are heading out to sea, temporarily caught in the overnight freeze, soon to be melted by the warming spring sun.
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Watching the sea ice float away

Great sheets of ice have broken away and are ready to float out of the cove with the wind and tide.
Great sheets of ice have broken away and are ready to float out of the cove with the wind and tide.

The powerful north winds of the storm earlier in the week pinned the ice to the shore, even while driving cracks into it. Now there is no wind, and much of the ice that we walked on in January seems poised to float out to sea.  What will it take for it to leave?  A south wind?  Repeated tides?

The sea ice nearby is keeping the temperature down in our yard.  Much of it is still covered with snow and ice, while up the road, further away from the water, the ground is bare.  It has been a hard, icy winter.  So I’ll be glad to see the sea ice go.

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Momentous events leave nature cold?

After yesterday’s grand celebrations in Washington, and us watching on TV with much of the rest of the world, the ice and the sea were still there this cold morning.  The frigid air knew nothing of rarefied oratory or high expectations, of the helicopter that had spun a departing president into the sky, and the ice had not heard of the new one – the president of the world, no less –  who magically came into power at precisely noon while listening thoughtfully to Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Mah’s divine music.  The ice floating on the sea, like the air suspended above it, just was.

Ice floating on the tide, January 21, 2009
Ice floating on the tide, January 21, 2009

But if a butterfly flapping its wings can alter events far away in space and time, perhaps this ice is not exactly the same as it would have been had yesterday been less auspicious.  And if we cannot observe things without changing them on some microscopic level, then because I am thinking these thoughts, the morning has been made different just by my presence, by the same mechanism that Barack Obama’s inauguration has changed the world.

I am reminded of a woman I met in a Nigerian market who spoke of how much better life had been under the brief regime of a certain president a few years before. She said that in those days, “I would go home from the market and make better soup.”  Seasoned with a dash of optimism and happiness, the flavour of ordinary, mundane ingredients can actually be improved.

Lastly, I recall reading some time ago how the culture of government in the US had spawned a sort of anti-intellectualism: it wasn’t cool to be smart.  Is that like the old custom of not standing higher than the king?  Let’s not be smarter than the president?  How disastrous for a nation!  I predict a change in that regard, folks.  So don’t hide your light under a bushel.  This world needs all the smarts it can get.