Ontario Ice Storm
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| Moira River, Corbyville |
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The recent ice storm that swept through Ontario left quite a trail a devastation, left hundreds of thousands of people without power, resulted in an untold number of traffic accidents and, perhaps most alarming, left my driveway with about four inches of ice that I now have to somehow break through (I’m kidding of course. It’s more like three inches).
But every cloud has a silver lining right? Well if you know me, you know I’m always trying to look on the bright side of things (alright, no more kidding around). So once the actual ice stopped falling from the sky, I grabbed my camera and headed out in a panic to capture some images of the aftermath… and failed miserably. I came home with nothing, and figured I had missed my opportunity. The ice would surely be gone by the next morning. But to my surprise, the cold temperatures kept the ice on the trees for days (it’s gone now, I just checked), so I’ve been sneaking out to take pictures when I can (i.e. in between building Lego with my son :-)).
One of my first attempts was a sunrise shoot down on the Bay of Quinte. I woke up super early and made my way down to the water in freezing temperatures to see what I could find. Eventually I came across this huge tree, covered in ice amongst the ice covered grass and reeds. Once I realized that the sun was going to rise right behind the tree, I set up camp. The only problem was that my camp was right next to a huge ice covered limb that had recently crashed down from the tree above my head. After a few minutes of setting up the camera and listening to the ice and wood cracking above me, I decided it would be best to leave the camera as I waited a safe distance away for the sun to rise.
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| Bay Of Quinte, Belleville |
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| A precarious spot to hang out |
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On Christmas Eve, we decided to go for a little drive in the country to see what we could see and to get out of the house for a few minutes. We headed northwest to Quinte West to drive around in the trees and ice and came across a few beautiful scenes. Of course I just happened to take my camera along, so I jumped out of the car and grabbed a few shots.
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| Quinte West |
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| Quinte West |
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| Quinte West |
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| Jane Forrester Park, Belleville |
Aside from the hundreds of thousands of people without power, car accidents, etc. etc. the ice storm over Christmas couldn’t have come at a better time! All of the trees, parks, buildings and houses that already looked great with Christmas lights and decorations, took on a completely new look with a layer of thick ice.
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| Riverside Park, Napanee |
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And of course, I couldn’t resist heading out into the trees for a hike. Although I was a little concerned about having ice fall on our heads, my son and I headed out for great walk in the woods where I took the photos below. This area of the trees was surreal. All of the branches had all collapsed together and matted into this freaky ice covered weave. It almost felt like you could just climb up and walk all the way to the top. Like some soft of huge icy bird nest.
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| Frink Centre, Plainfield |
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| Frink Centre, Plainfield |
One more thing that I won’t soon forget about this storm is that even though a parking lot on the side of the road in the country may look like it has no snow and is safe to pull into, it could actually be comprised of ice that is ready to crack and swallow your tires whole, which can get you stuck real good…. not that it happened to me when I had stopped to take the the first picture in this post (prints of which are available by clicking here)… I’d never do something like that.