08 January 2009

On growth and form in a micro ice age

Photographer Judith Acland has just sent me these pictures of ice on a beach.

Even in the middle of a cold snap, salt in the air and the warmth of the gulf stream mean less ice than most places.

Salt in the sand of the beach means than ice there is particularly rare.

This delicate tracery of a foothold is an unexpected delight.

Patterns on the beach – ripples, miniature dendroid run off deltas – always fascinate me.

In my (visually) formative years, I spent untold hours poring over Thompson's On growth and form.

I'm drawing the same awed delight from these.