Thursday, April 12, 2007

Trees trimmed with ice

Ice-coated trees along Route 115
south of Wilkes-Barre, PA
April 12 2007

Today I took my mom back down to Tannersville to exchange one of the pairs of shoes she bought two weeks ago. The drive there takes us through the Pocono regions that lie just south of Wilkes-Barre. As we climbed along Route 115 past the wind farm strung along the top ridge of one of the many mountains in the area, the panorama of trees almost-ready to bud changed into something ghostly. Every branch and treetop was painted silver. With dew?, I wondered as we drove along. Then it became clearer. No, not with dew. With ice.

Ice everywhere. It was a little eerie. Ice coated the branches and the power lines strung across the road. Ice dropped in neat straight segments onto the road, and fluttered out of the trees in mini-ice storms. By this point it was mostly slush and there was no real danger of getting your car windshield smashed by an ice-spear...I think. After a while I had the presence of mind to ask my mom to start snapping pictures with my camera.It's hard to take pictures of things from a moving car, especially delicate features in low-light conditions, but my mom did a pretty good job.

We didn't spend too much time in Tannersville, but by the time we got out most of the ice had melted from the trees. Still, with overnight lows predicted to be below freezing for the next few days, it's possible that this isn't the last bit of ice we'll see before Summer.

2 comments:

whimsical brainpan said...

And spring is where now? It is spring isn't it?

*runs off to check calendar*

Becca said...

That picture is really cool! Kudos to your mother. :)
-- Friendly FanAp Rebecca