The beauty of icicles

Icicles hanging from the roof of our school building

I have always been fascinated by icicles. Ever since I came to the USA in 1981, the very first time I saw an icicle form, I was just mesmerized and hooked on their spontaneity and beauty. I must have taken hundreds of photos of this creation of nature. An icicle is a spike of ice formed when water dripping or falling from an object freezes. Typically, icicles will form when ice or snow is melted by either sunlight or some other heat source (such as a poorly insulated building), and the resulting melted water runs off into an area where the ambient temperature is below the freezing point of water (0 °C/32 °F), causing the water to refreeze. Over time continued water runoff will cause the icicle to grow. And since we had some sub-freezing temperatures recently, icicles have formed everywhere, especially around our school and church buildings, the first photo being taken a few days ago. 

Icicles formed close to Hunter Mountain, NY

The second photo was taken close to Hunter Mountain in Upstate New York, back in 1982, on a skiing trip with another priest. Of course I did not ski, but was on the lookout for some great photos, including this one, with icicles bulging out of rocks, a scene that literally stunned me, possibly one of the best photos I ever took.