Mother nature's little hissy fit - pretty!

Tuesday last week the weather forecast called for 35 to 45 cm of snow on Sunday. Most of us didn't know if we should take it serious or not, the forecast was still for 5 days away. In any case, lately the weather forecast seems to be done by the guy from that old Tylenol commercial. He admits the tablets work, and his girlfriend says: "I like a man who can admit he is wrong." He replies: "Well, I'm wrong a lot!"  Meteorologist, for sure!

By Thursday it was only going to be only 10 to 15 cm of snow, and on Friday they changed it to freezing rain. I lived in Montreal during the ice storm of '98, so whenever I hear freezing rain, automatically have to worry a little about how far out of hand this could get. I do know that weather conditions were very unusual at the time, but I guess I am just a tiny bit traumatised..............

Sure enough Sunday mid morning it started to rain. It was about one degree below zero, and as we watched the two crab apples across the street slowly took on a shiny silvery hue. The temperature was expected to rise, and the freezing rain turn to regular rain later. Because it was only -1, the streets were very drivable, and I convinced the photographer that we just had to go get some pictures of this treacherous and temporary beauty.


Just around the corner is a tamarisk shrub that I usually admire in summer for it's explosion of fluffy antique-pink flowers. The smallest branches and twigs were now coated in a fine layer of ice, revealing detail  that we don't normally see in winter. All of this shows well against the background of cedars.

There is a bus stop a few streets away from us. At some point a birdhouse got put up on the other side of the sign. No one was at the bus stop, and I am pretty sure the bird house is vacant too. Brrrr.

Scotch pine with every needle on this branch coated in a thin layer of ice. A drop is about to fall.

A row of smaller trees (crab apples?) under power lines. The lines are definitely coated in ice, but they do not look weighed down very much.

There are three little berries left on this branch. The birds must have missed them somehow.  The rain continues to come down.

This spectacular picture is fit to be a Christmas card. I just need five pounds of fine glitter and we can compete with Hallmark. Can you imagine this little stream is called Mud Creek? It clearly was not named under these kinds of weather conditions.

Birch trees are often tall and thin, and then tend to get very weighed down by the ice. We have similar trees in the front yard, and when this happens I always worry that  they will snap. One year the top actually froze to the ground, and only thawed a day or two later. It took a long time to straighten again.

On Nichol Island Road there is an abandoned house. I never understand that, surely someone must have wanted this property, even if only to rent, at least before it caught fire, and was left to decay? Fixer upper? It is far beyond repair now I think. Sad! By the time we drove by it, a comb of icicles had formed on the roof edge, and a larger icicle was forming in the corer.

 A row of shrubs in a parking lot, completely evenly coated, and contrasting with the tail lights of parked cars.

Only an hour later the temperature had gone above freezing and most of this beauty disappeared quickly, and with it the risk of accidents and power outages. Freezing rain is very pretty, preferably for a very short time.

My mission to find more beauty in winter continues.......