My family has lived on a river in Vermont for 25 years. It’s always interesting, always changing, different this afternoon than it was this morning.

Over the course of a winter, ice can form, melt, float away, and re-form several times. But generally, by this time of year, it’s pretty well settled, coagulated in thick slabs along the banks, sometimes all the way across.

It is very rare indeed that the ice just melts, not on a river. Most often, the water rises because of the snow melt or we get a sizable rainstorm. The ice breaks up and then, on some invisible signal, it decides to flow downstream all at the same time.

It’s ice out time on the Corvus River as it flows through Carding, Vermont. Stop by for tomorrow’s Carding Chronicle to enjoy this annual display of nature’s ferocity.