Since this was my very first ice storm since moving to Georgia 7 1/2 years ago, it seems fitting to post a collection of images from the morning after. On my walk, I found new animal tracks in the snow, telling stories I did not pause long enough to read. I also saw ice everywhere, covering loblolly pines and the bare branches of pecan trees. I took delight in the crystalline landscape, though I mourned for the trees that lost branches and in some cases fell altogether.
For the first time since this project began, I was unable to make a post yesterday. Light freezing rain began Tuesday night and continued throughout the day on Wednesday, changing to sleet and back to rain several times before ending as snow. Casualties included my electricity (out for 30 hours), one pine tree in the backyard, and three cedars in the backyard. (Ice falling on cedars is far worse than snow falling on cedars, in my experience). One snapped two-thirds of the way to the top, and the uppermost branches are currently resting on my roof.
I ventured out early in the day. Beginning a year-long project, I expected I might have a day or two when I would have to be out on the road closer to a thunderstorm than I would like. But I never anticipated that I would be feeling a bit scared during a winter storm. But the quarter-inch or so of ice covering the trees made even my Piney Woods Church Road stroll a bit of an adventure. I heard a couple of limbs fall, and pine branches littered the ground. But nothing fell close to me during my walk, fortunately. It was sleeting while I took all my photographs; icy pellets kept landing on the camera lens, adding to the challenge.
In this photo I am looking southeast, beyond Piney Woods Church Road in the foreground to Rico Road in the background.
I returned this morning to the same spot along the side of Piney Woods Church Road where I saw the oak leaf floating yesterday, and discovered needles of ice had formed overnight. Every moment, the world around us is changing. In the spirit of Heraclitus, we can never step onto the same road twice.
Only a couple of days ago, I recall setting off down Piney Woods Church Road, from its intersection with Rico Road, and finding deep muddy ruts along the road edge. I remember being upset by this disfigurement of my daily journey. Yet, passing by that same spot today, I discovered the beautiful, intriguing patterns of ice bubbles frozen into those very ruts. What before was unsightly has now been rendered attractive and photo-worthy. The result is this “ice mural”, an image which I can imagine painted into the side of a building in some city somewhere. The abstractions suggest a landscape with figures — but I will leave interpretations to readers. What do you see in this image?
