Thursday, December 3, 2009

The lakes are starting to freeze over

It's December and also December weather. The "mercury" dropped into the freezing range last night at about six p.m. and has been there for the last 27 hours. I guess it's staying there the rest of the week. To test my cold weather resilience I went for a brisk walk around Lake Como - and I mean brisk. The lake surface was still mostly water, but the photo - taken on the northwest side of the lake - clearly shows the freezing line. The ice comes out from the shore towards the center. By tomorrow the whole surface may be captured. Or, at least, by the weekend.



I took the photos in a hurry, because the wind was blowing and there was a definite wind chill. The mallards are still swimming around - often in pairs - but their swimming surface will be turning hard sometime soon. They won't be happy about that. These two were much closer to shore when I started to get my camera out, but they swam away from me. I must have looked hungry.



I did see a biker pedaling around the lake, possibly a pleasure rider, but one with a parka on. I should have taken a picture.

Tennis continued at Wooddale. One of the players was ailing and absent, so we played a three person game that I learned at the Dude Ranch in Tucson. It's a better game than the typical "cut throat" game that usually erupts when you have three players. It's more of a singles game with the side with two players trading off on every point. It works pretty well and is pretty close to a real singles competition.

Then I went to Yang's for Singapore Rice Noodles. Very tasty and somehow satisfying to end the day.

4 comments:

Retired Professor said...

I name that photo "Lake Como in Transition." Winter eventually has to arrive, and it looks like the tipping point was this week in your neck of the woods.

gfr said...

Where's your snow?

Jimi said...

The snow is sparse, but is falling as I type. We don't get lake effect, but it's usually cold enough to keep whatever snow we get to stay around for a long time. TT

gfr said...

The noon news had photos of Grand Valley University, just north and east of here, with over a foot of snow. The interstate between Kalamzoo and Detroit was shut down due to crashes from white outs in the snow bands. Holland was semi-ridiculed for having only a couple of inches of the white stuff. It's still hovering around freezing, so there will be a little melting here and there.