When Mother Nature Gets Ticked Off.....

Mother Nature creates some spectacular scenes...and I would love the scene we woke up to this morning if it was December or January....but this is March...in fact it is March 29 and this kind of scene is NOT appreciated at this time of year.

We knew it was coming so Irv put bins and buckets over the bleeding hearts that were already coming up to protect them.

It really did look pretty when I looked out the back door, but then when I headed outside and saw our 50 year old lilac "tree" on top of Irv's pick up truck. I was so sad. I can't call it a bush....she is a mighty 18 feet tall!


I went in to bundle up and Irv started smacking the branches with a broom to try to get some of the snow and ice off. We could see where limbs had snapped off, but couldn't really tell what was snapped and what was just sagging because of the weight of the ice and snow.

Once we got some of it cleared away....we had lost one large limb and one smaller one. The largest parts of it were sagging so bad that we had to prop them with 2 X 4's to help support them so they won't snap. It's really disappointing because it was covered with buds and now the little guys are frozen and we won't have any flowers this year. What a bummer!


Mother Nature......Beauty and the Beast! Have a wonderful day!

Welcome To The Frozen Tundra

Just a quick little post today. Michael just came over and I am going to get out of my workshop for the first time since 7:30 this morning! Don't forget to leave your comment each day on my blog for extra entries into my very first Giveaway. Remember to visit my shops and leave your favorite item in a comment for a couple of extra entries.

Welcome to the frozen tundra of northern Illinois! Wow, what a week we have had. The temperature reached about -25 and with the wind, there were some areas with wind chills of -40. Our school closed yesterday because of the weather. There are a lot of kids that bus to school and it wasn't safe for them to be outside waiting for the bus I guess. (Gee, when my kids were in school and it was cold or raining, I drove them to the bus stop and let them sit in the car until the bus came......I guess parents don't do that anymore)

People's cars that sat outside would not start so that kept the gas stations in business running around jumping everyone's cars. Switches on the railroad tracks were freezing, so guys had to be out there working on those.

I felt sorry for the people that have to work outside. That wouldn't be for me. Once I am cold, I am cold for hours and hours after that, even when I am in the house!

I was out and about yesterday and had my camera with me so I snapped a couple of cold weather pictures. The first icicle picture is not my house, but the second one is. The horses looked happy enough, but something tells me they might have preferred a warm barn to the cold field, even with the little blanket on their backs.

The birdfeeders are mine. They are in an area that we don't shovel in the winter so they are empty. I just thought they looked cold and lonely like everything else right now. My other feeders get filled. Irv said the other night that he wished he could bring in the little birds that live on our deck. He said he could see the tail feathers of one of them sticking out of their little "house". They must have all been packed in there trying to stay warm.