Icicle by Chipka
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Description
Water is such a strange thing—the universal solvent. It both supports life and destroys it. It can be wet and infinitely squishy, or it can be as hard as a rock. It can be a vapor, but in each of its odd states, it’s still just water. I find that immensely fascinating.
Now that Winter has Chicago in its full grip, I find myself annoyed by the more solid presence of that water stuff. I think it’s because I’ve spent a lot of time trudging through it while carrying heavy I-Cat units, dental chairs, and various other heavy tools of the dentistry trade. I like the fact that I get to see some really swanky dental offices (they look more expensive than some people’s houses!) and if they’re not swanky then they at least look like the sorts of places where Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy would be infinitely at home. Modern dentistry isn’t any less uncomfortable, but it does provide more high-tech eye candy, and well…I-Cat units are strange, full-head x-ray machines. You sit in them while a scanner swivels around your entire head, taking pictures of skull space, with a particular focus on the teeth, of course. It’s amazing how deep tooth sockets are, and how tooth-roots are quite deadly in appearance.
But anyway, back to water. Since I’ve become intimately familiar with water in its more solid incarnation—or at least frozen/powdery form, I’m also fascinated by what it implies. Frozen, water is largely useless. It’s like a neatly packaged product. It’s locked away in the form of ice, and it just sits there. In so many ways, Winter’s snow and ice is Spring in a package that hasn’t been unwrapped yet. But of course, when it melts, it will mean that temperatures are high enough for woodlice to contemplate emergence...all of that newly-released moisture will inspire the growth of fabulous fungi, and they’ll emerge—phoenix-like—from spores that have hibernated over the winter. Green things will make use of the new melt as well…and the whole cycle of growth will start over. All because Nature was efficient enough to store up vast quantities of water during the winter. I rather like that.
Of course this little rumination probably means that I’ve spent far too many years reading and re-reading Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, and I’ve become as interested in water as one of his wild desert “Fremen.” Ah, but that’s not an entirely bad thing, since I do love Science Fiction, and the bulk of Herbert’s fictional Fremen were played by zillions of Czech actors in the last video incarnation of the Dune Chronicles…well…the opening chapters of those complex and compelling chronicles. And for those who follow such things, Dune has had 2 incarnations, and a third is on the way, according to Hollywood rumor. The first attempt was by David Lynch, the second was a SciFi channel miniseries (full of people with Czech accents) and the third is likely to be Dune-Lite…a Hollywood blockbuster…all of the excitement and glitz with only half the plot. But it’s because of Dune that I find myself thinking of water so much, and the potential of that clear, wet stuff when it’s locked away in ice. Dune is a desert story, and winter is anything but desert-like, but the similarities are there: lots of water that you have to work to get…you can’t just drink it. You have to coax it out of your own breath, or melt it. I kinda like that! And so in honor of water and its inherent promise of spring, here’s a diminutive icicle, photographed near Christmas of 2009.
As always, thank you for viewing and reading, and commenting, and I hope that your week is off to a great start!
Comments (17)
MrsRatbag
Mmm, yes, of course; gift-wrapped water! In a lovely diamond casing! I love ice and snow, in all their manifestations; as well, I have read the covers off countless copies of the Dune stories. I never expected much from any filmed version, Hollywood cheapens everything they touch, so I rather enjoyed both filmed versions since my expectations were so low. I won't hold my breath for the blockbuster version (LOL @ Dune-Lite!) This is a gorgeous icicle, they're hard to capture and you did well with the lighting!
blondeblurr
You are quite right, water is such a fascinating and complex thing; supposedly our bodies are app. 80% of it, how come then, when somebody dies and gets buried, the priest says: 'ashes to ashes - dust to dust'... shouldn't that be re-phrased, water to water etc. ? Ah, never mind, just a thought ! BTW that icicle looks like a sewing needle, many times enlarged. Jeff will be pleased to hear of all the future Dune blockbusters, as he is also an avid reader of anything Frank Herbert, amongst others e.g. Tolkien, Stephen Donaldson, Anne McCaffrey just for starters... BB
watapki66
Wonderful shot and commentary!
faroutsider
In fact there are very many similarities between dry deserts and wet deserts - the major difference being that wet deserts are seasonal. Excellent photo and commentary - I've always loved the Dune saga, although the visual interpretations have both been somewhat underwhelming. I'm not sure I'll bother with Dune Lite...
dadon72
It's also so photogenic... In ALL of it's states. A great shot Chip.
marybelgium
excellent shot and commentary !
durleybeachbum
'Dune-lite!' Todays ooze reminds me so much of an essay I had to write when I was 11 on 'Tea'. My Mother had a similar gift for words as you do, and our 'collaraboration' got us/me a top mark! I love the way you hang a great read on a simple image..brilliant!
flora-crassella
very cool shot!
dakotabluemoon
Cool capture looks like a tube with water in the bottom.
helanker
Yes. it is rather amazing that floating water can be hard as wood, just because it gets cold. it can be so beautiful in many ways as nowflakes, as ice flowers on a window and like icicles hanging down from the roof. Beautiful shot Chip. I posted something for you today.
anaber
Water is a beautiful word and an element of nature with such a POWER!!! for good and for bad in all their states. Fantastic Image and fantastic thoughts! Magical, as water also is!
Meisiekind
The only ice we really know here is the kind that you take out of the freezer in little blocks and put it in a glass before you poor some scotch over it... oh and the occational frost in winter! I love the icicle and even more in the context of your writing! Well done!!!!
beachzz
This would look lovely in a glass,with a little tequila, lime, and grapefruit soda--my version of la margarita!! I don't think I've ever seen an icicle, and actually, I don't think I'm feeling too deprived because of that. Because icicles mean COLD, and beaches are no fun in the cold.
NefariousDrO
Really fascinating photo, the shape is, dare I say: erotic? Anyway, like you I've always been fascinated by water, and the weird properties it has that makes life possible. I think the most amazing thing, though, has to be the fact that it becomes LESS dense when it becomes a solid. Just think about that: if ice didn't float, most things that live in lakes and ponds in colder climates wouldn't survive the winter! (and even worse, we'd never have the game of hockey, but I digress...) It really is an amazing and weird thing, and may well be the most valuable thing in our solar system, too.
kgb224
Outstanding capture and story my friend.
myrrhluz
Beautiful image! There are such a richness of spheres, ovoid, squiggles and flashes of light in this one icicle! Water is very interesting! I saw a program that was about the harvesting of ice during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It is fascinating to think of large vessels going to India and South America with cargoes full of ice. The substantial part of it arrived, still frozen at their destination. I think its wonderful to think of these large ships of water, sailing over the water. I'm going to have to reread 'Dune', but I remember the power held by those who controlled the water. We are in a similar condition today, where those countries that control the headwaters of mighty rivers, have power over countries further downriver. Much disruption may come from attempts to gain control over water. Excellent narrative and image!
claude19
I am especially sensitive to what you wrote on the water, I have lived in the northern fringe of the Sahara, and the days of heavy rains (2 to three per summer), one can hear croaking frogs come to the desert surface, which shows that water can take different forms ... it is incompressible, unlike gas, and can disappear easily in 1 or 2 meters of sand. The human body is the best receptacle for water because our bodies contain at least 70% unless we are descendants or precursors FREMEN! A beautiful photo of stalactite! Beautiful light too.