Crackling Ice

We all know about crackling fires in the heart of winter, but there is also crackling ice (not nearly as warm and cosy!). We had freezing rain and sleet from sometime around 3am to about 10am...so we had a coating of ice on everything! little icicles frozen in motion off the wheelwells of the car and the edge of the BBQ cover. Bird feed was frozen into something resembling millet brittle (the squirrel would break it apart and chewy off pieces...I had to put fresh millet out for the little juncos and sparrows). And a thin coating of ice on all the branches and leaves on everything in the garden. This evening a wind has picked up, so when I went out on the deck to call the dogs in, I could hear this crackle, crackle, crackle reverberating through the air...all the branches were moving in the wind and cracking the surface of all the ice. Amazing.