April Ice

I have been trying very hard not to jump on the bandwagon and complain about the absence of spring. Very hard. When I've been feeling down the last month about the cold, the frozen ground, the northern winds that penetrate to the bone and, oh yes, the lack of sunshine, my lovely six year old daughter has done her best to cheer me up."You can't look on the dark side Mommy, you always have to look for the brightness." She is a very clever little girl.

Yesterday, as the universe and little girls have a gentle way of reminding us, was a perfect weatherly illustration that everything indeed happens for a reason and in its own time. 12 hours of freezing rain from a slow moving winter storm enveloped most of eastern Ontario, and had any of my plants been above ground the damage would have been much, much worse. I am thankful for that. My tulips are only 2" high and everything else has quite sensibly stayed asleep.

I sloshed around in the back with my camera after the worst was over. Ice coated shrubs and branches gave an almost ethereal effect against the newly greening grass.

Definitely broken. 
In total we have nine large branches down, not too bad really, and they all missed hitting anything important, like the house and the cars. I think my husband is excited to get his chainsaw out today and start cleaning up!

The new "orchard" in progress. Young and strong, they show no signs of damage.

An icy tangled mess of bush honeysuckle and sumac that grows wild along the boundaries of my property.

Of course no one was sitting here at the time, thank goodness.

Limbo anyone?
This birch tree showed amazing flexibility and I had no need to worry, though I must confess I was redesigning this space in my head in case it shattered.  I am amazed that this morning it has fully rebounded.

I hope everyone affected by the storm has power back on and made it through with little or no damage. We'll be spending our weekend cleaning up and looking forward to the brighter, sunnier days that are sure to come.

Take care wherever you are - best wishes for peace, love and joy and happy gardening!