My Niki

Santas Santas Santas

Lombard Fireworks

Nikita

It's like she is floating on a cloud. My sweet little Niki.

Lovely Rose

Beer Cap

Craters

Thought this was an interesting point of view of one of our breakfast items on the menu.

Ice Spikes

Ice spikes are odd ice structures that occasionally grow out of ice cube trays.
Ice spikes are made of nothing but ice. 
Ice spikes are the result of physics, not biology. 
Here is a picture I took of ice spikes that grew in my kitchen freezer.
Check out the little bubbles in the spike. 
They look a lot like the stalagmites found in caves. 
I used reverse osmosis water for making the ice.


Why does this happen, here is an answer I found on the web:

The water in an ice cube freezes from the outside in.   Once the outside is sealed the water inside freezes and expands.
So the interior water is pressurized.
If it freezes at just the right rate the pressure can push the liquid water out of a hole in the top surface and freeze it.
It helps if the water is clean and free of nucleation sites i.e. distilled

Shabbona State Park

Lovely pink flowers at Shabbona State Park, Illinois. 

http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/parks/r1/shabbona.htm

Red Maple

Red Maple. Tree planted in our back yard! We used to have

an Elm tree, died of Dutch Elm disease, so sad. The tree was 85 years

old, shaded 3 yards.