BRRR!!

Hello!

Today's post is a few days late because a large ice storm smacked North Texas last Friday and knocked out my internet for nearly a week.  The streets were slick, many trees lost branches, and sadly there were several traffic fatalities as this area doesn't really receive that much snow and ice throughout any given winter and so we're not really prepared for it.  Having lived in Colorado some years ago I'm quite careful when driving on snow, but ice is a whole different ballgame.  I had to get out on it twice for very short trips, and it was very slow going the whole way.

I also had the pleasure of dealing with a sinus and ear infection last week, so needless to say, I'm a little behind on all of my holiday preparations.  My husband's birthday is this Saturday, my mother's coming for Christmas shortly thereafter, and my stepson is coming for New Year's.  I'd better get in gear, right?  So my craft room is, for the time being, taking a short winter's nap, but to keep in the spirit of things, I thought I'd share some pictures of the lovely scenery after all the ice rained down on us.

This is not snow.  It is all ice.

It was beautiful, and there's nothing like the hush of the air when the landscape is blanketed with, in this case, ice.

The oak tree is late losing her leaves this year.

The White Fringe Tree in the backyard. Her autumn leaves are my favorite.

What in the world is THIS?

This is Sweetie's first experience with snow and ice.  She weighs over 50 lbs. but still wasn't heavy enough to break through the sheet of ice covering my backyard.  Yes, that's a piece of a gutter pipe in the foreground. Three guesses as to how it found its way to the ground.

 

 

 

This is my vitex, a lovely shrub that blooms in June.  Normally it's upright.  Not anymore.  It's also one of her favorite shrubs to gnaw on, and now it's down on her level.  She's quite happy about that.

My heart breaks for this tree.  There was damage like this everywhere.

We were incredibly fortunate in that none of our trees lost any limbs.  The damage up and down the neighborhood was devastating, but my little corner of the world was spared.

My lovely golden creeping juniper.  Hopefully the damage will be minimal.

Our roses bloom well into December and sometimes into January.  I think not this year.

And one last photo...

"Well, the birds aren't using it."

Hugs!