Ice Storm: Tears Turned Into Rivers of Diamonds

We awoke on Sunday morning to ice. Ice on the porch, ice on the front steps, ice on the cars. Though I heard the roads weren't too bad locally, I was glad we didn't have to go out. So we stayed home and watched the storm. We made homemade chicken soup; we heated up Nardone's pizza; we watched movies; we were snug.

It iced for a while, it rained for a while, it sleeted for a while, and then finally, later on, it snowed. The precipitation occurred in intervals, and I watched for my opportunity to go out into the yard. Sometime in the afternoon, I seized my chance: I carefully crawled down the steps with my camera and umbrella and took some photos around the yard. Even the grass was slippery.

An ice storm presents very special beauties. I love to look at the details on the plants, covered in a frozen layer. I touched a rhododendron leaf, encased in ice, and it was crunchy. Everything else seemed tinkly: alive, but covered in a layer of glass that crumbled easily.

I believe the buds in the photo above are a variety of azalea. I enjoyed how the water had dripped down the stems and the individual drops had frozen, like cascading fountains of ice. Or maybe rivers of tears, turned into sparkling diamonds by the cold. Yes, tears turned into diamonds: that is ice.

The soundtrack song is Sparkling Diamonds, featuring Nicole Kidman and others, from Moulin Rouge, one of my very favorite movies.