Ice back again

The thaw is over and winter is back to its business... serious business. After the "April" rains and higher-than-usual temperatures melted almost all of the ice, the freezing cycle started anew with morning lows that bottomed out at two below zero. It had warmed up to about eight above when I decided that a walk was in order, and as I headed towards a seasonal stream—so-called because it runs out of water in the summer—about a quarter-mile into the woods east of the house, I noticed the quiet. That stream had been roaring during the thaw, but it was now speaking in murmurs. Most of it was sheathed in muffling ice, and if the cold persisted, even the little stretch of open water where the current was strongest would soon be ice-bound. You'd only know there was a stream here by watching the passage of bubbles under the clear windowpane.