Location Taken: Lake Michigan beach, Michigan
Time Taken: January 2011

I’m still on a snow kick. That’s an odd turn of phrase you know, being on a kick. And Google’s not telling me where it came from. So I shall just be content imagining little people riding a giant foot that is kicking.

Did you know that sand can freeze?

You don’t really see frozen beaches many places. Most beaches are on saltwater bodies of water, after all, which take a lot lower temperature to freeze than freshwater. And most freshwater bodies of water are small lakes and rivers, which are more likely to freeze solid entirely than just have the beach freeze. The Great Lakes, though, are both freshwater and quite large. Ice can form on them just fine once the temperature drops below freezing, but the waves on the lake push it towards the shore. And the thinner water near the shore also freezes just fine on its own. The sand is saturated with freezing water, and the water is saturated with sand just normally. This lets sheets of ice that are as much sand as ice form, and then the waves push them inland to form layers above other ice sheets.

That’s what caused the odd scene in the above photo. Well, that and an odd allowance of letting the horizon tilt to get the angles I wanted. Don’t worry, the water of the lake isn’t draining away to the right.

I rather like frozen sand. It has a sparkle to it. Sand always has a bit of shine, since it’s mostly made of tiny pieces of quartz. And ice has its beautiful translucency and natural smoothing patterns. Combine them, and you get a rather lovely effect. Not that it’s sparkling in this photo, since it was snowing at the time.

Yes, I did take a walk along a frozen beach, in the dead of winter, as it was snowing. Is this unusual?

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