ice

Nature Bends

| Flower Roberts

It seems that I am the most grateful when I am perched on the edge of a disaster. I saw the tipping point yesterday.

I am on the other side now. Listening to wind howl. Watching snow that cannot hit the ground. Seeing dancing trees that only yesterday at three o’clock were white with heavy ice.

A rain came at four and washed the ice off. The crashing down of the ice layer went on for hours. The trees were free again.

Ice-free trees can bend, not break.

That is the lesson here. Nature is made to bend. Forces may make the trees sway and bend, but but breakage only occurs to unyielding things.

Do you bend and yield?

Or will you stand up straight…and break?

FLOW

Watch the Evergreens

| Flower Roberts

If you are in ice right now. There is one thing to watch. The posture of the evergreens.
These trees have evolved through ice and snow. They are designed to bend downward instead of breaking.
Right now I am surrounded by evergreen trees covered in ice. They are holding up well. When the load starts to be too much, the limbs will bend down and rest on the limbs below. They will start to look like a closing umbrella.

Trimmed bottom limbs

If you trimmed off the bottom limbs, there will not be lower support and the whole system may collapse. I have a trimmed evergreen out one window and an untrimmed tree out from another.

Untrimmed lower limbs.

These two trees will tell me when/if the ice is too heavy to hold. Once the cracking starts, other types of trees are in danger also.

When this collapsing starts, the probability that you will lose power increases greatly because limbs and trees will come down.

We are also expecting wind later. Wind is not a friend to ice-covered trees. If the temps get really low, sap will freeze and trees will explode.

Mix of trees and shrubs

It is time to watch and listen to the trees.

FLOW

Diamond Dust

| Flower Roberts

I have spent today in a frozen cloud. There are ice crystals on everything. I call this “diamond dust.”

Big crystals


Frozen fog makes the air white. Visibility is severly limited. It has been strange to be in a frosty cloud all day long. All sounds are muffled.

In a cloud.


Look how the frosty fog is clinging to the deck railing. It has stayed around 20° F all day.

Frozen Fog


Rose just informed me that more snow is expected here. I am content to stay inside to read and write. I can pace on the porch if I feel antsy.


This is my first big snow on the mountain. I am happy to be here to enjoy it.

FLOW

Water and Ice

| Flower Roberts

I am fascinated by water.  I call it the miracle molecule.

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It is the only substance on Earth found in all three states (solid, liquid and gas) at natural temperatures.

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Water molecules form a lattice as they freeze. This is why ice floats.

IMG_6979I have posted on snow several times.  Here is some ice art for your enjoyment.

 

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I could have stayed here all day watching the water flowing behind the ice sheets.

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I love nature with all my heart.

FLOW