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The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful
And it’s all ice…… let’s start with the beautiful:
Glorious color and line!
And then, the good: my favorite tree in the whole 11 acres, an OLD apple tree alongside the driveway that still bears a lot of fruit (not great for eating off the tree, but good for baking or feeding the wildlife), is in good shape—this is the tree that must become a quilt:
Hallelujah: at least this, my favorite tree, is safe! I so love the lines of this tree, the architecture of it, and only one small branch broke off…wooohooo!
And the bad–the birch broke more over the night. Broke beyond salvation I think. Sigh. I would replace it, the bark is glorious, but I fear it would suffer the same fate. Maybe a crabapple–lower down, fruit for the birds, the wild turkeys clean up the mess that falls, flowers in spring, entertainment watching the critters……..sigh. At least we enjoyed it for three years:
The river birch is toast. Sigh. It was so beautiful. I’m hoping I can salvage some of the bark and use it somehow in a collage or mixed media piece. So beautiful. Well, it was.
And the expensive–Asst. Coach True Bragg has a tree business, so his brother Max is coming over with a chainsaw so we can get off the property. There are three spots where trees need to come down or get whacked back so we can get out.
Just one of the trees that is down, this one only partially blocking the drive.
To give you an idea of how much ice…..
Currently it is raining, despite an air temp of 25 degrees. Water is dripping off the roof, running down the crust of ice on the snow in rivulets (which is better than rivers). I only hope the rain is warm enough it will melt some of the ice on the driveway instead of creating more ice on the driveway–I need to buy food for Christmas! I figure one trip to town later today and I can hole up until at least Thursday!
So I’ll leave you with more pictures that illustrate “the tree that does not bend will break” and some winter beauty. Heard a big crack and thump when I was out of a large limb breaking across the road, and expect there will be quite a lot of that in the coming days. Not sure if I want wind or not. It would cause more damage, but at least it would shake a lot of the ice off (I hope) and prevent some, too. We shall see what the days bring.
Close-up….might make a good thermofax screen. This is my beloved apple tree.
A shrubby “weed tree” that will get a serious pruning today. This would also be a cool thermofax screen. Our plow guy had to cut some branches just to get his sand truck up the driveway!
The tree that does not bend……
On that bent over tree, the branches look like coral, except in ice. Another hand picture to give a sense of how MUCH ice there is.
Pine needles laden with ice.
This could make a good small art quilt, too….
Another thermofax screen? I can see fiddling with this one in Photoshop, outlining the ice in a fine line of black, then the branches. This is another of the old apple trees, quite a tall one with lots of gnarly growth and twigginess.
The birch on the right is almost as tall as the one to the left–when it isn’t iced and bent to the ground! Don’t know if it will make it, but at least it isn’t in the driveway.
And a last bit of beauty..looking to the woods on the left of the drive at the bend in the driveway—beautiful. I’d say it would be a good day to hike/snowshoe (which I have never done b ut always wanted to do), except that the snow is like a skating rink also. The crust is thick enough to support you for just a moment, before you crash through. Guess not, eh?
Beautiful!!!
December 23rd, 2013 at 1:19 pm
We were certainly spared down in Southern Maine. It’s beautiful, for sure, but the memory of the ’98 storm is still too real!
December 24th, 2013 at 11:40 am
Oh, my, such beauty and oh, so cold. Sorry about the tree but glad you and your house are safe.