Who knew beauty could be so destructive?

The freezing rain began sometime on Friday night or so. We didn't have to go anywhere so we stayed put.

I don't really know what my problem is, but I am really afraid to drive on ice. I think part of it has to do with my early driving years. I lived something like 32 miles or more from my high school. It was a long trip on a sunny spring day. It was a much longer trip on a slick winter morning. I don't mess around with bad road conditions. So Saturday morning, Hubby and I were trying to decide if it was too slick for me to travel into downtown for Bible study. He stepped foot out the door and slid all the way down our driveway. Somewhere in my logic this must have suggested that it was safe to drive. That, or I was just that desperate for a coffee and a cream cheese muffin. I made it there and back safely.

But on my way back home I discovered that there is something slightly more dangerous than ice on the road when you are driving in town. In the country, tree sit a good distance away from the road. Not so in the city. As I crept slowly down wet streets, all around me tree branches plummeted to the ground. And throughout the day, Hubby and I watched from the warmth of our house as our neighbor's yards became littered with heavy tree limbs. We lost a few, but nothing so big that Hubby could not drag it to the curb.

This morning, again driving carefully, I noticed just how spectacularly gorgeous ice can make things. Winter trees are usually farm from beautiful. But this morning, they were breath-taking. With their branches dropping from the weight of their coverings, the sun glittered through the ice - as though it was one enormous crystal chandelier.

All in all, we managed to survive the great winter storm of 2007 without much injury to our persons or property. And today we are enjoying the beauty on the trees that are left standing.