…..for days we’ve been hearing about the arrival of this ice storm

Yesterday I was hesitant to venture out of the house because of the ‘ice storm’. Well, yesterday, in the city we really only experienced rain, especially down by the lake. In the end I decided to venture out as long as it was raining water and not ice. I had my hair cut, went to the eye doctor to have my eye exam, did a little shopping to take advantage of some coupons and gift certificates that were about to expire and went to our friends, D and D, for dinner.

Early this morning, at 4:00 a.m., our dog Frances insisted that she needed to go outside. Ughhh! The temperature had dropped and the ice started to form on the trees. At 7:00, she woke me again to go outside so I decided to take some pictures. It was still dark so most of them didn’t turn out but you can see some of the ice on the yew and the ornamental cabbage is nice and frosty.

Later this morning our daughter, A, stepped into her backyard and took the following pictures:

All morning the news has been nothing but ‘ice storm’, ‘ice storm’, and more ‘ice storm’. My father lives east of Toronto in Oshawa and he was without power overnight and my friend L, who lives 15 minutes north of me has been without power since 3:00 a.m.. There are so many trees and power lines down that some experts are calculating that some areas may not get power back for 72 hours. That means Christmas morning without lights, heat, television, computers and anything that runs on electricity. So far 450 000 homes are without power. Oh, boy!

I guess I should worry about my tree in the backyard that is dying. Fingers crossed. Not much I can do about it now. I think I’ll just hunker down and wrap some Christmas gifts.