Flotsam and Jetsam

This place was a debris field this morning, inside and out. Over the last couple of days we've had snow, sleet, freezing rain, more snow, wind, cold temperatures....until there was a nice build-up of ice on everything, including the snow. Last night, when the wind began to pick up, the heavily laden tree branches whipped the side of the house sending shards of ice crashing into the windows and trickling down the slope of the roof, sounding like some percussion section gone awry. Several times throughout the evening and overnight I was certain a window would break and I'd be picking up scattered branches from the floor while desperately searching for a tarp to cover a gaping hole in the side of the house! This morning when I looked outside, the beaming sun was making diamonds out of the shards of glass that had fallen during the night. Sharp points of broken ice protruded from every near horizontal surface, looking like a virtual ice mine field. Branches were down all over the yard. In some neighborhoods entire trees were down, as well as the power lines that were under them. Although the commotion from the storm kept me awake a good deal of the night, at least we didn't lose power. Many others in our area weren't as fortunate.

Some of the downed branches and ice shards in our front yard.

Although the ice was a nuisance, it sure made lovely patterns on the garage door window for Shawn to photograph!

It also made amazing photo opportunities for Julia. Hopefully those beginning buds won't be impacted by their time in the deep freeze.

The studio is also littered with debris today, not of the icy kind though. Yesterday I held a Pysanky workshop in my studio. I taught nine students, kids through adults, the Ukrainian art form then we created lovely egg masterpieces. One of the participants, a friend of Julia's, took some pics of the event. When he has a chance to put them on disk for me I'll show you what we did. For now, the messy studio pics will have to suffice!

All those raw eggs and not one was broken even by the youngest students!

Tonight I am crashing like those ice shards! Shawn has continued making Pysanky, but I am properly positioned on the comfy couch with my feet propped and my lap top in front of me. It's been quite a weekend! Perhaps I'll be able to catch up on that lost sleep tonight.