Pancake ice

By necessity I'm stuck down here for the winter in the Chicago area although I'd much rather be up at the Writer's Lair on the shore of Lake Superior in upper Michigan. 

But the next best thing to being on the spot is the photographs our friends who live on the Big Lake send us frequently. For instance, our neighbor Dave Braithwaite took these shots of pancake ice late in the afternoon near our cabin just a couple of days ago.

Pancake ice is formed when freezing slush forms into round, flat cakes with turned-up edges created as the cakes collide with each other in wind and waves. They look for all the world like deep-dish pizzas, don't they?