Another winter storm rolled in this week, but less severe than predicted – what we ended up getting was sleet and freezing rain, enough to coat everything but not much more than that. Not long after sunrise the sun had broken through the clouds, but soon afterward the sky became solid overcast and remained that way until just before sundown – I had gotten out before that occurred and snagged a few frames, so those are our Estate Finds this week.
The conditions, save for the sun, remained the entire day since it barely peeked above freezing, and walking around outside could not be done stealthily at all, since the grass was covered with a thin layer of frozen beads, the sleet that had then frozen together under the freezing rain, and it was downright noisy to walk around, but not slippery.
The pink camellia (Theaceae) bushes out back were not quite up to the task, and the tops bent nearly double under the weight of the ice, which produced a curious effect.
No, the frame is not flopped – this was exactly as the branches appeared, overburdened with ice; the pink variety does not seem to have sturdy branches. The trunk of a tree out on a small island in the pond did worse, though, snapping sometime after the storm, though it was already leaning way out with poor balance and appeared to have some rotten sections anyway. But the other varieties of camellia were holding up fine.
Yes, almost exactly the same spot as previously, though not the same blossom – they only last a couple of days. The white varieties started blooming recently and they’re holding up well too, though somehow they only had half as much ice even though they were only a handful of meters from the others. Go figure.
As you can see, the grass wasn’t even fully covered – not a lot of precipitation, and presumably the air got warmer in the higher altitudes to permit the sleet to turn to rain, but it was too cold down at the surface. Made for some nice decorations, anyway.
We return to the Japanese maple for the last two shots, because it was the most photogenic as well as being backlit by the sun. This was not one of the many that we brought with us in the move, but one that was already present on the property, a lovely twisted old thing. Looking forward to seeing it leaf out in the spring.
And finally,
This is a tighter crop of a larger frame to concentrate on those details, because of course. We get ice storms only every five years or so, often without nice sunlight afterward, so I was glad to have the opportunity. And two decent storms in a winter is pretty rare for this latitude, so you bet I’d take advantage of it. Neither of us had to be anywhere and we could just stay home and keep the fire going, so it worked for us.