Ice

 After several days of a beautiful, winter wonderland the snow froze and a thick layer of ice settled on top. The picture above is so interesting to me. It looks like it had been raining, but it hadn't. The sheen is the top layer of ice. It was so thick that Leila could stand on it without breaking through. The ice was beautiful!! It was amazing to see the way it froze on tree branches, leaves, lampposts and even the rock wall. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the ice in the yard. While it was gorgeous it turned problematic rather quickly. Trees branches were snapping and falling under the weight of the ice. Power lines were downed. The line  above our mailbox was sparking all night. We kept thinking we would lose power, but amazingly we did not!! The neighbors power line pole cracked at the base and was leaning, rather precariously, over the road for several days. The lines were 5 feet off the roadway. Chris and I spent quite some time sitting on the couch in the front room watching and listening to huge chunks of ice and branches fall onto the icy ground. I think even Chris was a bit nervous about the trees, as he didn't even tease me about wanting Leila to sleep in our room overnight. Not one bit. Her room is closer to all the trees in the yard and I was a little worried that part of a tree might come down. It was a very memorable winter storm to say the least!

 If you click on any of the pictures it will enlarge the photo and make it easier to see just how thick the ice coat was! 

 Look how thick the ice on these branches is!