Freezing Rain

So there has been freezing rain all day today, and all the plants are getting a think coat of ice.  The most vulnerable are the pencil hollies, with very long, thin, vertical branches that are now bending over sideways from the weight of the ice.  I hope nothing breaks, and that the bent limbs will return to shape once the air warms up tomorrow morning.  But there is nothing I can do without potentially causing greater danger to them.

Here you can see the paperbark maple, with its flaking layers of red bark underneath the ice.

Then there is the Christmas Folly, built by my beloved out of left over magnolia and spruce branches.  It looked like an exotic Christmas tree! I was ready to take it apart because it is getting quite brown, but this is a fitting way to have a dramatic last fling.

Usually by the end of February I have cut the tall grasses, cleaned up the flower beds and gotten them ready for a new layer of mulch.  That is going to have to wait. I wonder how long. I am tired of waiting for better weather so I can go outside.