The Iceman Cometh

Frozen path

We went outside this morning to survey the effect of last night's ice storm which swept past the Midwest.  We first noticed that there is a thin layer of ice embedded with broken branches and little ice blocks all over the driveway and walks.  Forget about 'shoveling' it at present!  I went inside to get my phone to take some pictures, and of a sudden Kirk dropped the unexpected "Oh Eh, we got damage!"  Sure enough, a large branch had fallen from the tree at the end of the driveway, knocked off a light pole, squashed some bushes, slightly damaged the gutter on its fall and just barely missed hitting the glass panel of our sun room.  Unfortunately, there is nothing much we can do at the moment; Kirk will have to get a chain saw or hire someone to remove the dead limb of the tree and reset the light pole when the weather clears up a bit.  Even so, we count ourselves lucky for not having sustained any other more serious damage.  The snow storm is still raging hard outside my window while I write; the glorious colors we had last summer seem like a dream of yore. 

Here is the plaque, commemorating the summer garden walk of 1991 which passed through our backyard, dangling on the light pole which was knocked off kilter by the falling branch. It says -

"A garden 

Soothes the soul
summer garden walk 1991"