A Terrible Beauty ....

It has been an interesting week.   In my December

21st post I had a photo of some of the cherries on

our cherry tree after the Friday night ice storm.  Well,

on the night of the 21st we had another ice storm and

that one was much worse.    Compare the previous

picture of the cherries to the one above and you'll

see what I mean.

We knew that the storm was coming of course so

we were expecting some degree of damage and

loss of services.   Most churches, including ours,

sent out word that services the next morning

would be cancelled in expectation of loss of

electrical power and treacherous road conditions.

That was a shame because the Sunday before

Christmas is always a wonderful service ....

lots of beautiful singing and candles and

decorations and joy!!

All night on Saturday night DH and I lay in bed and

braced ourselves whenever we heard a sharp, loud

"CRACK" followed by a whoosh and a "CRASH".

The sound of tree branches snapping off and dropping

to the ground.   We have a big old maple tree in our

yard and that night a great many of it's branches

came down, landing not only in our yard but

also in the yards of our neighbours.   One large

branch landed squarely on the roof of a 

neighbour's shed putting a V shaped dent

in it.

Occasionally we'd be startled by a vividly bright

white flash of light followed immediately by a

blue flash.   Another transformer blowing on a

neighbouring street.

The storm lasted much of the night and we woke

up the next morning (after a night of very little

sleep) to a sight of both breathtaking beauty

and heartbreaking destruction.

Ice many inches thick covered everything.   Slender

wires, tree branches, blades of grass.  It was 

incredible!    

The power was out in our neighbourhood and 

indeed it was out all over the southern Ontario 

region where the storm had swept through.

We are lucky enough to have a gas fireplace

so we at least had heat that day.   DH kept it

on high throughout the day and it was surprising

(not to mention gratifying) how well it was

able to keep most of the house reasonably

warm.    I spent the afternoon wrapping

Christmas presents in our bedroom and 

was pretty good albeit with layers of 

warm clothing on.   

The storm passed on late in the morning and

people started to cautiously venture outside

to survey the damage.    The most obvious and

sad result of the storm was the damage to the

trees.    If you were lucky ... just a few 

branches down .... a little less luck .... major

branches down .... and the saddest of all

were the trees that were either split down

the main trunk or with the main trunk 

snapped right in half.

A corner of our street.    Branches covered in ice,

 broken branches and wires a lot lower then

they should be.

In our backyard.    Our birch tree clump is five

trees growing in a ... well .... clump.    One 

tree had it's top snapped off.   The second

is as you see it above.   Bowed right over and

frozen to the ground.   A third trunk was bent

over and it's branches mixed in with and frozen

to our Mountain Ash tree.

Our deck.    The tangle of branches is from the

Mountain Ash tree, the Birch trees and the

trees and bushes in our neighbour's yard.

On Christmas Day and Boxing Day we had

snow.   The above picture was taken after

the snowfall on those days.   Pretty.  But

adding to the weight of the ice on the 

fragile tree branches.

A tree on our street.

The sounds of chainsaws roared through

the neighbourhood that Sunday as people

worked to remove dangling branches

and trim the jagged tears on the surviving

wood.   All the while keeping away from

anything that was touching or tangled in

with the telephone, cable or (worse) 

hydro wires.

Power was out all over and it would be

a long, painful process to restore it all.

Our power came back on Monday 

morning at 6:00 am.   Many of our

friends didn't get their power back until

late Christmas Eve evening.    Some

people are just getting their power

back this weekend.  We drove to work

on Monday morning through darkened

neighbourhoods and towns.    Some

rural side roads were blocked by police

cars as they were littered with fallen 

tree branches and/or hydro wires.

Many people lost fridges and freezers

full of food and had to throw out the

fixings for their Christmas dinners

which spoiled after several days without

power.

Christmas Eve our friends the O'Briens,

their son Ian (our godson) and their two

budgies came to stay.   Their power

actually came back on not long after

they arrived at our place but they stayed

overnight and had Christmas dinner

with us because their house was so cold

after three days without heat and needed

time to warm up again.   

It bears repeating that DH and I were so 

lucky to have our power restored so 

quickly. We take such things as electricity 

and heat for granted all of the time that we

have it and it takes events like this ice

storm to remind us to appreciate what

we've got.

My main Christmas gift from DH this year

was a Cuttlebug for scrapbooking and 

crafting.   I'm so delighted to have this

little machine which both cuts shapes in

paper from dies and also embosses patterns

right into the paper.  I'm going to have a

lot of fun with this little cutie!!!

(Judy rubs hands together and 

hugs machine .... and DH) 

For myself I got me a copy of this lovely

Zentangle book which I recommend 

highly.   It's full of designs created by

Zentangle artists from around the world

and there is so much to look at and be 

inspired by.   I've been going through

this book from cover to cover and then

back through again.

I thanked me very much for this 

wonderful gift.

Yesterday I made this.   There are still

a few bits to tangle in but most of it

is done.   Fun!!

The cats are happy to have the heat back on

and life returning to some degree of normality.

DH and I are off until after New Years and

enjoying our holiday.   Hope that yours was

a wonderful one too.

Best wishes for the New Year to you.

Cheers!