THE SOUTH WILL RISE IN HEAT AGAIN

Yes, it has been a very cold winter thus far. After nine straight days of near record cold temperatures, rain is predicted by tomorrow evening. There was never much snow, but the temps dropped and stayed below freezing for longer than it has in several years, so what little fell stuck around and is still around in places. Oh, it's been as cold over the past winters, but it has been some time since it stayed that cold during the day for this long.

I really don't remember, at least in recent memory, seeing the Emory River freeze over. It wasn't thick enough to walk out on, but there was at least an inch of ice covering the lake areas from shore to shore. The rocks and debris, including one garage can I saw, that kids threw out onto the ice still await a warm enough day to allow them to settle to the bottom.

Even the water inside plants and at their roots was forced up and out into beautiful little ice flowers known as "Frost Flowers"! I thought the little white things along the roadside were pieces of paper, but after stopping and taking a closer look I saw their beauty frozen in time.

There is one fountain in our local Riverfront Park that completely froze up, while another in the little pond by "Wild Wings Cafe" in Knoxville still struggled to put out its spray.

As I wrote in my last post, the ice covering the river made weird noises, sounds I called "singing" as the wind above and the water moving below pushed at the surface causing strains that made audible sounds. I've heard the Indians talk about the singing waters, but I always assumed it was babbling springs, but it could have also been the friction of the ice as it gently moved on the waters. Follow this link to hear the "Chants of Frozen Lakes" by Marc Namblard! Click the audio start button to hear the recordings.

Nonetheless, spring shall be back in sixty days or so, and all will be forgotten, save these photos. I suppose that's true about everything though...it's here...then gone...unless we have a photograph to remind us.

More frozen photos HERE.