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January 10, 2005

the ice storm, part 1

Ice park. I spark. Aisp Ark.
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.
Say 'ice grass' five times fast and mean it.
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 reminded me of the movie 'The Natural' for some reason.
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.

Posted by joel at January 10, 2005 10:33 PM

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Comments

Beautiful pictures. I've never seen an ice storm, and especially like the bending trees in the friend's yard picture.

Posted by: Worldgineer at January 11, 2005 12:38 PM

These pictures are fabulous and, I can tell Worldgineer, they capture the beauty of ice storms perfectly. I have seen these sights many times, particularly when I lived in Vermont. Somehow, the way ice envelops each blade of grass, each leaf, each twig, showcases them and makes us see them in a way we never do in normal weather.

Posted by: Colleen [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 23, 2005 08:43 PM

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