Winter's Revenge
The world here had begun to warm up and start looking like spring, but a few days ago Winter decided that it wouldn't go away without throwing one last, nasty punch. So we got a layer of ice, then a layer of wet, heavy snow, then another layer of ice, and finally another layer of wet, heavy snow. That made clearing the sidewalks and driveway a real pain: doing any shoveling by hand was hard because of the solid ice layer in the middle (and on the bottom), and even our pretty spiffy snowblower usually needed two passes or more to clear the ground. (It would often start by just plowing on top of the middle ice layer.)
But the worst victims were the plants. The initial coating of ice was a perfect surface for heavy snow to accumulate on, and the second ice layer just served to lock the snow in place. The weight proved to be too much for an old tree in our front yard. Toward the end of the storm, it ended up splitting down the middle. A big segment fell across the sidewalk, and the rest fell to the side, crushing the fence and the neighbor's bushes. Here's a picture taken after I'd already gotten the sidewalk clear:
For comparison, here's what the tree looked like (from another angle) when we bought the house:
The large bushes in our back yard weren't spared, either:
Unlike the fallen tree, I'm hoping that they'll be able to recover a bit of their former health:
(Not that Kim and I have made any effort to keep them as perfectly round as the previous owners did in that picture!)
But the worst victims were the plants. The initial coating of ice was a perfect surface for heavy snow to accumulate on, and the second ice layer just served to lock the snow in place. The weight proved to be too much for an old tree in our front yard. Toward the end of the storm, it ended up splitting down the middle. A big segment fell across the sidewalk, and the rest fell to the side, crushing the fence and the neighbor's bushes. Here's a picture taken after I'd already gotten the sidewalk clear:
For comparison, here's what the tree looked like (from another angle) when we bought the house:
The large bushes in our back yard weren't spared, either:
Unlike the fallen tree, I'm hoping that they'll be able to recover a bit of their former health:
(Not that Kim and I have made any effort to keep them as perfectly round as the previous owners did in that picture!)