Wintery Flake

I thought these images of the beautiful symmetry of nature was worth sharing. The seemingly random processes of snow flake formation are amazing in the variety and splendor they produce as part of our natural world. We don’t get that much round these parts though, well snow no, but amazing variety and splendor – of course we get that round here!

I guess there is a balance between the force driving toward simplicity and the randomness and dynamics that give the variety spice. The surface energy of the ice drives the crystal to a single plane. Nothing could be more simple, or boring. Thermodynamics says all snowflakes should be the same. However, I guess there is an instability, almost like the spark of life. If a bump were to poke out into air that had a little more water vapor, it would grow faster, this little bump is now bigger. If the snow is forming fast, this mechanism dominates and results in the beautiful snowflake dendrite. How lucky we are to live in a world were things change and changing all the time. I guess I am glad we are part of a world where thermodynamics is in play so we all stick together, but the rates of change and the living dynamics of our world and transport phenomena really make it a place worth living and thriving in!



I guess I have to admit, that I found the pictures here : Snow Crystal Science

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with friends last night. We went up to Lulu’s in San Francisco. Wine and dinning with a big group is always fun. Julia was laughing and sharing the whole night. It was really good to get out, we haven’t found enough time to get out like that in a while.

Work on the house is progressing well. We put in the roses last weekend and I have been painting the shutters this weekend, hopefully they will go up soon. We got a pretty outrageous quote for landscaping the front yard. Maybe not outrageous, but more than we had originally expected. We can swing it, but we are going to ask around a little first before we just go with the first bid we get. I guess no matter how you slice it, it is far better than doing all that back breaking work yourself!


Ah, back breaking work. Here is my beautiful wife in the midst of it. She worked so hard to dig up our front yard and prepare for putting our iceberg roses in!



Here they are all in their new and hopefully happy home. I had fun making the saw horses as you can tell: