“Let us simmer over our incalculable cauldron, our enthralling confusion, our hotchpotch of impulses, our perpetual miracle – for the soul throws up wonders every second. Movement and change are the essence of our being; rigidity is death; conformity is death; let us say what comes into our heads, repeat ourselves, contradict ourselves, fling out the wildest nonsense, and follow the most fantastic fancies without caring what the world does or thinks or says. For nothing matters except life.” – Virginia Woolf
The title came to me instantly, as I watched this natural cauldron with fascination, as the water boiled and seethed, like a living being, clawing upwards, through a fissure in the surrounding ice, it’s only escape from the pressure below.
You see, the rapid thaw generally ran across the ice of Duffins Creek, this February afternoon, but in some places, the water was forced beneath heavy sheets of ice, with nowhere to go. The pressure built and built till a small imperfection the ice offered an escape. This hole became that escape. It was the only opening in the ice for several hundred yards and the water seemed to literally boil forth. The hole must have been there for a while, as a frozen ‘lip’ or ‘fringe’ formed around the edges, catching the sunlight and glowing from within, making the scene that much more captivating. The surrounding ice looks like it’s loosing structure and I’m sure the phenomenon did not last long, but I did not have the opportunity to return later in the day.
This is yet another of those temporary moments where nature reveals a small part of her wonder in the most ordinary places. Nature throws up her wonders by the second and I’m happy to partake as often as I can.
Ed Lehming Photography 
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