Ice storm, then snow storm

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm kind of a weather geek. And have we had weather this week: an ice storm yesterday morning, followed by a snow storm in the evening.

This meant one thing - time to get out the camera. Here are some pictures:

Sedum and Russian sage coated in ice

Old clematis vines coated in ice

After the snow storm

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

Ice storm - the bigger picture

The photo of the grass stem encased in ice that I posted this morning doesn't give you the big picture. Later I made this photo of the grasses and shrubs in my front garden, which shows more of the ice storm's effect.

I'll take a snow storm over an ice storm any day, but I have to admit that this storm created a lot of glittering beauty and not too much mayhem, at least on my own property. One neighbor did lose a tree, uprooted by the weight of the ice, and another lost power for a day.

The temperature is going to rise above freezing for a day or so now, so the ice will start to melt. There was no snow on the ground before the storm, so every little grass became coated in ice, which has made it tough on dog paws. We've had considerably shorter walks in the past couple of days.