Let the Melting Commence...

Fallen ice from the power lines

A little closer...

 Last night, Rich & I went to the local Rural King to buy some muck boots for me. We were thinking with the predicted warm temperatures (up to 60 by week's end!) and with all the snow and ice around, we'll need some good muck boots. Rich got a bag of fresh popcorn. If you have never been to a Rural King, perhaps you've been to another farm and fleet kind of store. The scent in there is unlike any store I've ever  been in: a mixture of animal feed, cold cement, tools and fresh popcorn. But last night, there was a new smell in the store: spring. It was like a whole new store! After I picked out a pair of boots, we walked around the rows of seed starter, rows of racks of seeds, huge bags of grass seed, barrels of other seeds, aisles of pest control. It was very exciting. And spring, while not really in the air, is being hinted at today. It is warm outside. In a short while, we're going to go out into the melting ice, in the muck, and pick up the limbs and branches that fell during the ice storm. We're going to finally hang the new bird feeder. In short, this will be the first day of 2011 in which we'll work in the yard!

Power line ice.

I don't know why I'm fascinated by the ice that fell off the power lines. But I am. For a week now, I've seen the straight lines in the snow where the ice fell from the lines above. But today, as the snow melts around those lines, I realize that the ice is intact in the snow. I picked up a piece. It was fragile and melting quickly, but for a few seconds, I was able to hold the power lines in my hand. Or at least their impression. It was some of this ice that brought the power down two weeks ago. It was some of this ice that was so beautiful and yet so terrifying. And it is this ice that is quickly becoming water that will soon become the garden...