A Phenomenon

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I went out the front door to see my neighbour. What's this? How did this bottle get here....wait a minute, that's not a bottle...oh my word...an extremely slow drip from this faucet has obviously created this bottle shaped ice phenomenon.

Pictures taken at 8pm on Monday, January 26, 2009.

During the coldest weeks of winter Al always turns off the water to the outside taps since we've discovered the painful way that it is a good idea to do so. About ten days ago Al decided to wash the van to rid it of some of the accumulated dirt and salt since the weather was now above freezing. But then the deep freeze came again. He must have left a wee bit of a drip going...when I touched my finger tip to the underside of the tap it was wet but I never saw a drip actually dripping. In just over those days this "stalagmite" had formed. This is not ice bursting forth from a standing bottle...this whole thing is an ice-bottle. You can see a bit of a base at the bottom of the first photo indicating that initially there must have been a bit of a thick puddle happening.

I had left my camera at Hedy's yesterday and so it wasn't until tonight at 8 pm that I got these pictures. I didn't want to wait until tomorrow since it may just begin thawing overnight, although it doesn't feel like it at all.

Quite phenomenal...what do you say?