"Ice, white ice, like a winding-sheet, sheathing each smoke-grimed wall;
Ice on the stove-pipe, ice on the bed, ice gleaming over all;"
--The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill by R. W. Service
Okay, it might not be that bad, but there is a thin sheen of ice on every branch and every horizontal surface. The temperature has hovered just around the freezing mark and the drizzle that fell during the night (and continues off and on this morning) has frozen where it fell. Small icicles hang from the edge of the roofs of both the house and bird feeders.
Birds trying to land on the deck railing have slid like 747s on icy runways. (One of the more comical scenes this morning was the sight of a mourning dove trying to land on a branch that was sloped at about 15-20 degrees. Poor thing slid 8 or 9 inches before coming to rest against another twig that branched off from the one it landed upon.) Seeds in the tray feeders have become frozen in a bed of ice. I had to be very cautious when I went out to place some fresh seed on top of the ice.
Conditions are not going to get much better this morning but there's a chance that the temps will rise a degree or two and that might lead to something of a thaw.
1 comment:
I do not like that freezing rain..when I was a kid growing up in North Texas and Oklahoma we had more freezing rain and sleet than we ever did snow...and it makes life miserable.
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