I’m out here on the shores of lake michigan, caregiving my 100 year old mother…..and i thought it would be pretty dull….lake michigan was frozen solid for miles and miles, with open water near the shore, and a wide variety of ice colors and textures.
How could this ice possibly disappear, I wondered? There was no place for the ice to go, as there might be on a river. Then, two days ago, the ice began to turn bright colors, blue, green and even brown. Then, far off shore and parallel to it, a strip of dark open water, as though left behind by an icebreaker, appeared from a point of land to the west, eastward for 6 miles.

Yesterday, that strip had widened, and with the waves produced in that narrow strip, had turned the entire area—mile after square mile–into brash ice, totally immersed in water, like rum on the rocks….this ice was an even darker blue-green color. It would obviously absorb heat quickly.

and then today, a single day later…..miles and miles of ice was magically gone….vanished overnight….how could so much ice so quickly disappear? it simply didn’t have to go anywhere, but once broken in small pieces and bathed it water, it could melt in hours, not days…

i thought i would be far from the fascination of ice…..NOT SO!…..jory