Gisela Taranovski, a former planner for Boeing and a kayak builder, tells us she shot this scene of nature's whimsy on a snow-shoeing trip with her son and daughter-in-law to Washington State's Mount Rainier in late December 2009.

"We were stopping by a creek to take in the scenery, when I noticed this strange phenomenon in the creek," Taranovski told us via email. "There is nothing photoshopped, this is just the way it was."

We find the interplay of water and ice compelling as well as cooling.