Ice Patterns

With the forecast today for a bright but cold day, we walked in the area to the east of Meall an Tarmachain, leaving early so the shadows were still long across the land.  By January the vegetation has died right back, which makes for easy walking, but... 

....the temperature out of the sun has probably been below zero for several days, so the surfaces of the burns were frozen, the water gurgling where it ran underneath matted layers of ice crystals.  The low temperatures also meant that the ground itself was frozen solid, making firm going across flat land but slippery on the slopes, so we walked with care.

We must have seen upward of fifty deer in groups of varying sizes, most of them hinds.  This young stag was in the company of eight hinds, the group allowing us to approach quite close before they ran off; but they didn't go far as we came across them again shortly afterwards.  At this time of year their coats blend in wonderfully with the burnt-brown of grass and heather.

From a hill on the eastern flank of Meall an Tarmachain we looked across to Rum and down into Coire nam Bothan.  While the smallest of its lochans was frozen with ice as clear as plate glass, easily thick enough to carry an adult's weight, the other had what looked from a distance like foam at its northwestern end.  So went went to investigate.

Not all of the lochan was frozen: a patch of clear water in the centre rippled under what was, by then, a stiff and very cold wind.  The lochan is elongated, and runs SE-NW, in the direction of the southeasterly wind which has been blowing for the last few days.

This is the 'foam' - ripples of ice at the down-wind end which looked as if they had suddenly frozen solid, and then their crests had caught the snow we had last Saturday.  We have never seen structures like this before....

....but, looking away to the north, we saw that Lochain na Cloiche was similarly patterned.