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01/01/08, 01:02 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Washington State
Posts: 4,107
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What is this?
I wandered down to the creek on a snowy morning to find this white stuff attached to a branch. Figured it was some strange ice formation. It warmed up before I got around to bringing my camera down to take pics.
This morning I had my camera out with me and once again spotted this stuff...same branch, same stuff, and it's thawed out enough times since my last visit to the creek for it not to be ice 
So what the heck is it? 
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01/01/08, 01:10 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 3,368
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I have no idea...
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01/01/08, 01:12 PM
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AFKA ZealYouthGuy
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NW Pa./NY Border.
Posts: 11,453
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01/01/08, 01:14 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: East TN
Posts: 6,977
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It's just very pretty frost. Nothing like finding it on all of the weeds and grass early in the morning.
__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost
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01/01/08, 01:16 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Lexington, Georgia
Posts: 224
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Where an angel came to rest during the night?
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01/01/08, 01:22 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 3,368
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Interesting. I guess I'm too far north to have ever seen any.
Michelle
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01/01/08, 01:23 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: South East Iowa
Posts: 437
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If it's not ice then it must be some kind of spun fiberglass? Or maybe an angel got his hair snagged up?
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We have now officially entered the twilight zone.
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01/01/08, 01:26 PM
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Dutch Highlands Farm
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Along the Stillaquamish, Washington
Posts: 1,642
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That is hoar frost or frost flowers. When I moved here 5 years ago it was the first time I ever saw it, too. Its really neat. It requires still air for the crystals to grow like that. I have found that it shows up even if there isn't any regular frost anywhere else and it stays around for quite awhile. I presume it is because of the shape of the crystals that give it different properties from regular ice.
Isn't life in Washington great?
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If angels existed, they'd probably be considered big game. (Don Swain)
Home schooling.........not just for scary religious people anymore. Buffy
Last edited by Christiaan; 01/01/08 at 01:29 PM.
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01/01/08, 02:29 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Washington State
Posts: 4,107
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Okay...but why is it only in this one place, even after several thaws? I'm going to go back out and look again...and maybe...maybe get brave and touch it!
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01/01/08, 03:17 PM
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Ami
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: mo Zone 5b
Posts: 1,729
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Wow! Very cool pics. I love when I learn something new. Thanks for posting this!
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"Mama always says stupid is as stupid does" Forrest Gump
"It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit." Noel Coward's Blithe Spirits
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01/01/08, 03:26 PM
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Original recipe!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: NC foothills
Posts: 13,984
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In the mountains here we can get something similar by creeks where the mist rising from the waters freeze. Also on the high mountain tops as passing clouds freeze to limbs..very pretty that when the sun hits it.
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01/01/08, 03:38 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Michigan's Thumb
Posts: 6,322
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I thought I knew everything, then something like this comes along. Thanks for letting me continue to learn!
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01/01/08, 05:14 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Ontario
Posts: 12,685
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Looks like a fungus to me.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........
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01/01/08, 05:22 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 5,662
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LOL! I would have touched it the first time I saw it! Really neat pictures, though.
Kathleen
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01/01/08, 05:37 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: near Canadian border in MN
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It looks more like some kind of cocoon or silk from a caterpillar/s to me. But I'm not familiar with all of the west coast critters. Frost hasn't ever formed like that where I've seen, not that it's impossible, but it really doesn't look like any kind of frost formation that is physically possible from my scientific viewpoint. Bring your photo into an extension office or post it on one of the forums where they know bugs better.
Tom
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01/01/08, 05:46 PM
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AFKA ZealYouthGuy
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NW Pa./NY Border.
Posts: 11,453
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by LFmenagerie
It looks more like some kind of cocoon or silk from a caterpillar/s to me. But I'm not familiar with all of the west coast critters. Frost hasn't ever formed like that where I've seen, not that it's impossible, but it really doesn't look like any kind of frost formation that is physically possible from my scientific viewpoint. Bring your photo into an extension office or post it on one of the forums where they know bugs better.
Tom
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uh... I suppose you could do all that, but scientifically speaking, if you research frost flowers you will have your answer.
http://images.google.com/images?q=fr...=1&sa=N&tab=wi
(thousands of pictures of frost flowers)
Along with an explanation of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_flowers
and a big picture... I will just give a link since it's so large... but you will see it looks like yours.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...eardDetail.jpg
or...
you could go to your extension and have them verify it.
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01/01/08, 05:50 PM
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Chicken Mafioso
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: N. TX/ S. OK
Posts: 26,190
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__________________
JESUS WAS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT
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01/01/08, 09:07 PM
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I live on a creek here in N.E. Oklahoma and I see frost flowers quit often in the winter time. It has to be a very cold frosty night for them to form. I mostly seem them toward the bottom of a stick weed. Some can be quit decorative.
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01/01/08, 10:59 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Washington State
Posts: 4,107
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It was gone by the time I went back out...too warm, I guess. But after reading the first link provided and then googling it myself, I learned that it's not frost, but more like tiny little icicles. Seems my branches are water logged (now, how could that happen down by the creek in WA?), and as it freezes, the moisture is being squeezed out, forming little ice buds that just continue to grow as the water continues to seep out and freeze.
Most of the other photos I've found have resembled hard ribbon candy...definitely more ice like than this soft version I seem to grow here.
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01/02/08, 08:08 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Illinois
Posts: 295
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It never fails....at LEAST once per year I see and learn something that just takes my breath away! That is wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed the linked pics, too.
Thanks!
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"I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something.What I can do, I ought to do. And by the grace of God I will do." -Lou Holtz
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