January 27, 2005

the ice storm, part 5

The trellis looks like it's covered with hoary hair.

Another favorite of mine: the underside of the neighbors' hammock.

The needles of a white pine.

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January 14, 2005

the ice storm, part 4

It was so easy to take pictures that day. I'd just raise the camera, and the frozen world would mug for me. I spent no time composing this shot. I just looked through the view finder, said, "oh, cool!" and pushed the button.

The needles of this pine tree look more like glass pinecones. Wasn't there a song called "Land of the Glass Pinecones?" Somebody help me out.

We took to referring to this construct as the "Ice Cage."

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January 13, 2005

the ice storm, part 3

Although almost everything above ground level had ice on it (including each individual blade of grass), the roads, while constantly wet, never did freeze. I generally find asphalt driveways to be utilitarian and unremarkable, but there is something evocative about this shot. Perhaps it is the reflection of the trees.

One of the fields near my friends' house.

Notice the curved icicles. This happened because as the branch gradually bends beneath the increasing weight of the ice, the orientation of the icicles changed. I saw some icicles which pointed straight up, and then curved around to point back down.

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January 12, 2005

the ice storm, part 2

I think this is a cedar, and normally stands tall and straight. The ice has caused it to spread into a vaguely Seussian Christmas tree shape.

This is possibly my favorite photo of the ice storm. It captures in stark and gleaming fractals the essential elements of tree, ice and leaden sky.

I thought these were cherries, but I am told by the owner that this is a crab apple tree. The apples didn't fall last autumn, and now they are encased like prehistoric flies in lead-crystal amber.

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January 10, 2005

the ice storm, part 1

My friends' parklike lawn is eerily transformed.

Putting aside my worries about frozen pipes or frozen cats at my house, I accepted the invitation of some friends of mine to weather the ice storm at their lovely generator-powered home. On Thursday morning (January 6th), I donned my hat and coat, picked up my trusty $78 dollar two megapixel Finepix digital camera, and took a stroll through a wonderland of sculptured ice.

These reeds made an interesting pattern.

Nature needs no chainsaw, but she might as well have one. Observing this storm was oddly bittersweet, for the temporary beauty of the ice left behind permanent scars. I assumed, at first, that perhaps this was nature's way of cleaning up the weaker branches and trees, that only the stronger trees would remain. After looking at many trees, however, I concluded this natural selection was not necessarily to the benifit of the fittest. Some kinds of trees are flexible. Some are less so. But even two equally healthy trees of the same variety could suffer different fates. Some trees with widely spreading branches somehow did not break, while others with shorter branches that reached heavenward were ripped down.

This tree is one of several I saw which were utterly destroyed by the ice. This tree was about 50 feet tall before it was splintered clear down to the roots, below the level of the topsoil.

It was chaos. Some branches just happened to have a barely too unlucky angle of inclination, or a few too many twigs, or an otherwise inconsequential and invisible flaw deep within the wood. Whatever the reasons, on this morning all the trees were separated into survivors and firewood.

I have 14 other photos of the ice storm which I'll be posting over the next few days.

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