Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Aftermath of the Storm

Some of you may have heard about the crazy weather we've had in the PNW this past week. The week started with on-and-off snow, which changed over on Thursday to an ice storm, which brought down trees and power lines all over the region. For a while over 250,000 customers (individual and business) in Washington state were without electricity and/or heat. That included us. Our power came back on Friday night at about 10:30, after being off for about 40 hours.

The back garden early in the week (pretty, huh?)

Fortunately we had a gas stove, which we could light with a match to cook and to warm up the kitchen area (it's an open plan house more or less, so kitchen area means a fairly large space). Some of that warmth made it up to the second floor of the house, but unfortunately, not into the bedroom. But I had a nice fluffy duvet and a husband to snuggle with in there at night.

And for entertainment I had my Kindle during the daylight hours, which was fully powered up with a couple of books that I hadn't read before.

During the ice storm, ornamental grasses and perennials in the front garden became encased in ice.

A hanging basket in the front, which until the storm had kinda sorta been hanging onto life


English laurel bent over by the heavy weight of the ice


All day Friday, as things thawed, we could hear all around the snap, crackle, plop of huge chunks of ice, snow, limbs and small branches falling off trees. A lot of them landed in my back yard, littering the  stream.

Douglas fir branches -- they smell like Christmas, but what a mess!

The stream, running again now that the power's back on, but clogged with twigs and branches



Another corner of the garden where branches fell in abundance

And in the front, I lost a tree between us and the neighbors. Do you know that cutting off the leader trunk of a tree is called topping it? And in England, committing suicide is called "topping oneself?" Well, this tree topped itself.

Top half on the right -- bottom half, the rest of the trunk, on the left.



This is the same tree that I lost a couple of limbs from earlier this year. So although technically the bottom half of the tree is still alive, it's truly not long for this world. I figure I now have a good excuse to replace it.

Well, if you don't hear from me in a while, it's because I'm on clean-up duty. I prefer a somewhat tidy garden.

In the meantime -- Hurry up, Spring!