…0r Icicles from our bicycle(s)!

A few days ago, Malcolm and I ventured out for a tandem ride to ‘blow away the cobwebs’. It worked! We’d planned a short, local, circular route taking in a rural road we found on the map but not investigated before. A wee bit along said road, we skidded to a halt!

We had to turn and go back (easier said than done on a tandem in a narrow country lane). Had we really seen what we thought we had?

A fairly young sapling had icicles hanging from a broken limb! On closer inspection, there was no other explanation other than it was frozen sap: a sap icicle, or sapcicle!

Early/ mid-February is still too early for the sap to be rising, but I had recently read about ‘pebble ice ’ and ‘needle ice’ – cold-weather phenomena of ice segregation. This is when moisture is drawn out of an object and freezes in the colder air. I’ve not seen either before, but read that ice needles protrude from the ground, while ice pebbles form from…pebbles!  Our Hair Ice was a good example of this ice segregation; though other examples that don’t require the fungus element create ‘ice flowers’. I’d love to find some of those!

Interesting reading

Perhaps the sap was being ‘wicked’ from the wound? I read up about capillary action, but science was never my strong point! A relatively safe conclusion is that as the sap dripped from the tree, it froze in the freezing air, creating the icicles.

It was certainly cold enough!

I’d got wrapped up in my customary 4 pairs of socks, leggings and double layer trousers under waterproof trousers as well as numerous layers of warm tops, coats and unfashionable, but essential, headwear! The exposed portion of my cheeks stung in the bitter wind chill!

We had attended a foraging course with Mark Williams a few years ago where he showed us his methods of collecting birch sap – birch tapping. The sap was very pleasant, but really just like a faintly flavoured water. I sampled a drip at the bottom of our sapcicle – and can confirm that it tasted like sweet nectar! Delight!

Had I thought, I should have identified the tree (my suspicion is sycamore). In which case, had we brought the sap icicles home, and boiled the liquid away, we could have had our Shrove Tuesday pancakes with ‘maple syrup’ last night!