With an ironic nod to the holidays, the
elements got together to pack a heavy wallop over the festive season - a
cluster bomb of snow, ice, pellets, and freezing rain. The landscape became decked
in a lethal, startlingly beautiful coat. Nature can indeed cause havoc, as
residents of New Orleans , Fukushima ,
Pakistan , Bangladesh , Sri
Lanka , India ,
Philippines , Mexico City , Haiti ,
Chile , Ethiopia , Somalia, for example, can readily
attest with their heavy loss of life from hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis,
floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions…. For many hundreds of
thousands from the Great Lakes to the eastern
seaboard, the Christmas week ice storm must have been one long nightmare with lengthy power outages which
continue yet for some. Thankfully though, fatalities were low.
For
our visiting friends and us on a convivial Christmas Eve, the scene around us was
dream-like and spectacular in its sparkling splendour. A lone deer high-tailed
it off up the hill, leaving not a trace as she negotiated the crusty ice
without penetrating it. We walked in reverence, as if on glass, treading gingerly,
taking in the magical sparkling of the grasses and branches coated in thick ice.
The setting sun cast long late-afternoon shadows atop the white surface.
With
extended cold and sunshine, the light and ice show lasted for days, a
brief power outage proving to be only a minor inconvenience. As we wait for the accumulation to
slide off the roof in one momentous crash, we are more aware than ever of the treacherous,
beauteous, humbling nature of ice.
