This winter ice

a pinetree limb covered in ice. source

On Last Winter Ice, a post from almost a year ago I published a gallery with some interesting pictures about ice in the last winter. Now I've prepared a new gallery with some amazing pictures from this winter. The protagonist is ice again:


Fishermen drill a hole through the two-foot-thick ice to put their net into the frozen Chagan Lake on December 24, 2008 in Songyuan, Jilin Province, China. Chagan Lake is one of the ten biggest fresh water lakes in China and winter fishing on the lake has a history of over 2,000 years. The local authorities organize the old tradition aimed to attract a lot of tourists and make the lake a popular tourist destination in winter. (Guang Niu/Getty Images)


Skaters compete on a track of ice created from grassland sprayed with water, in the northern Dutch province of Frieslands on December 29, 2008. (ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP/Getty Images)


After being pronounced husband and wife, Michael and Sigret Cook, center, exit the ice chapel built for their wedding on Christmas Day Thursday afternoon, Dec. 25, 2008 in Fairbanks, Alaska. (AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Johnny Wagner)


A chain link fence and the trees behind it are covered with a thick coat of ice in the aftermath of an ice storm along a highway in Boylston, Massachusetts, Friday morning, Dec. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)


The Marken lighthouse in northern Holland is seen surrounded by ice sheets, caused by the recent cold weather, on January 2, 2009. (OLAF KRAAK/AFP/Getty Images)


Avery Thomas and Dave Dishneau work to secure straps from a crane hook to a submerged utility truck Monday afternoon, Dec. 22, 2008, on the Chena River in Fairbanks, Alaska. The vehicle's multiple occupants escaped unharmed after breaking through thin ice near Pike's Landing the previous night. (AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Johnny Wagner)


Trees bent by the weight of ice from a winter storm line railroad tracks in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/The Berkshire Eagle, Ben Garver)


People skate on frozen canal in the Kinderdijk's Mill Area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, near Rotterdam, Netherlands, Saturday Jan. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)


Ice forms on a crabapple tree following an ice storm in Antrim, New Hampshire, Friday, Dec. 12, 2008.(AP Photo/Jim Cole)


A Chinese couple enjoys time together as they ride on a specially made ice-chair on a frozen lake in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)


A snow sculpture takes shape at the Snow Festival in Harbin, China, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.