Day 4.351: Ice palaces

On Christmas Eve, we had a walk at Five Rivers. We walked the Turkey Trail, unfortunately I have inexplicably lost the pictures I took with my compact camera including a modern-day recreation of this shot from our first walking of that trail back on Day 18 - suffice it to say the girls are quite a lot older and taller and E5N1 is...well, is.

There were sheets of ice to pick up, look through and drop:

But Exile #2 made the most startling discovery in the woods.  Underneath the fallen leaves were needle-like ice crystals apparently lifting them off the muddy ground.  Exile #4 dubbed them ice palaces - they look a bit like miniature Fortresses of Solitude to me.

They were hard to photograph so I found something easier.

I'm finding this so-far-almost-snowless winter surprisingly photogenic.