Poor Little Magnolia Tree

 


My daughters gave this tree to me a couple years ago. Since I have almost every tree possible in this area, I lacked just that one. It is now coated with ice as are all the other trees here in the Midwest. We were hit later than OK, and ours started Monday mid-afternoon....

I'm posting more pictures on my other blogs, tabbed at the top right of this one. We saw this monster coming and Monday morning, though chilly, my whole area was out stocking up. I loaded wood for my fireplace insert at the front door. In single digit weather, the north-facing patio doors were already blocked off with panels of insulation, also some basement windows. I also put blankets over the worst hit windows. So with coffee in the thermoses, stew, etc. ready (I can heat and simmer on my insert if necessary), I settled in to wait. Cell phone charged, water bottles filled, everything I knew to do waited.

First, Monday mid-afternoon: Freezing rain. Now that's the stuff that coats the tree limbs, either breaking them or bending them over power lines, etc.

Freezing rain changed into sleet, back and forth for a while, then a dust of snow arrived Tuesday a.m. Tuesday continued a mix of freezing rain and sleet and by Wednesday a.m. we had 2-3 inches of snow over the ice.

Roads were covered. Lines to the houses wrapped in ice and sagging.

While some of my friends/family didn't have power, they did have phones or cell phones. Most didn't have anything.

I've always been grateful for this old insert, which projects out enough from the fireplace to add heat, even if the electricity for the blower goes out. Nice to warm coffee, too, but I thought of all the people away from my little area, where we did have electricity.