Mother Nature doesn’t always play nice and we Michiganders knew we would be paying the piper for all those wonderfully warmish days thus far in Winter 2022-2023.
We got a Winter wallop with that snowstorm on January 25th, but the worst was yet to come. Southeast Michigan was not singled out when Winter Storm Olive meandered through the Midwest and beyond, wreaking havoc wherever she went. While we did not get snow measured in feet like Minnesota, last Wednesday’s ice storm was a force to be reckoned with.
The forecast of high winds and freezing rain was dire and the meteorologists were all correct. Our local energy provider forewarned that just a half-inch of ice on the electrical wires was the equivalent of a baby grand piano sitting up there. Wednesday evening I perused our City’s two residential Facebook forums and, to my dismay, saw many photos of downed or arcing electrical wires and trees on fire from those wires. I read how frantic homeowners were getting busy signals at 911 as dispatchers were slammed with fire emergencies. This brought back the horror of last December 2nd, the downed wires arcing on the chain-link fence and fire that resulted in my neighbor’s garage and stockade fence burning down and my charred garden, when fire ravaged just 25 feet from where I slept. I still feel blessed that the house and I escaped the fire and only dealt with the smoky smell and frayed nerves afterward.
Except for the fact that I remain woefully behind here on WordPress from my three-day internet outage, it was a nice reprieve from my usual eight or nine hours of online activity per day. Since I couldn’t work, I had a chance to read, finishing two books. That was a good thing, since, while still on a high from finishing “Dreamland” by Nicholas Sparks on January 2nd, I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge and declared I would read 25 books in 2023. Gulp! Who was I kidding? Since blogging began, it has been more like a book every long weekend, so yes, the internet outage helped toward my Goodreads goal.
So, ice wasn’t nice of late, nor on this shorter-than-usual walk I took on February 4th.
Some ideas are best left bubbling around in my brain.
Winter Festivals and February are synonymous in Michigan. There were several of them being held February 3rd and 4th. I was interested in the Downtown Trenton Winterfest.
It was a bitter cold morning on Friday, the 3rd and Saturday, the 4th promised to be equally brutal.
The Winterfest would have warming tents, crafts, hot beverages and the usual fare, but what interested me was the ice sculptures which were to be placed around Downtown Trenton businesses.
I decided to get there early Saturday to bypass the actual festival. I hoped to get some nice ice sculpture pics for a blog post. I had never seen ice sculptures before so I charged up an extra camera battery to ensure I didn’t run out of juice halfway through the ice extravaganza.
Well, battery drainage was the least of my worries ….
I decided to park at Elizabeth Park and just walk to the heart of Downtown Trenton. As I had driven along Jefferson Avenue, I saw one ice sculpture in front of a dentist’s office, a cute, heart-shaped character with skinny arms and legs. In one hand was a toothbrush, which was fitting for a dentist’s office. I parked, pulled on two pairs of gloves and headed toward the vehicle bridge to cross the canal and into the Downtown shopping area. The 18 mph/29 kph wicked wind was whipping around my face and I reached up and yanked my wool hat down to meet my glasses in an effort to keep it from going airborne.
The 16F/-8C with a real feel of 3F/-16C temps froze my fingers before I’d even left the island.
You may recall the post I wrote about the Canada Geese monopolizing the Elizabeth Park canal, crossing in front of the many kayakers out for an Summer afternoon paddle. Here is a picture of the geese versus the kayakers … aah Summertime.
Fast forward to February 4th – likely the same geese (and ducks) gathering in the frigid waters.
I zoomed in on those geese and ducks in the canal.
Just going with the floe.
Despite the brutal cold, the canal was not frozen over, but many mini ice floes drifted lazily down the center of this narrow waterway. I would have liked to get over to the Boardwalk to take photos of the bigger ice floes on the Detroit River, but the big bridge was snow-covered and slippery. The bridge is almost a century old, so to preserve its vintage cement steps, salt is never applied, nor are the steps shoveled. Going the long way to reach the Detroit River Boardwalk just wouldn’t do as my fingers felt as frosty as those ice floes.
These are some shots of the big bridge …
… and the snowy landscape around it.
And here is a slideshow of some frozen feathered friends in and around the canal. I guess if your feet and body are already frozen, might as well just go with the floe and hop on one – brrr!!
Yes, twice when ice wasn’t nice.
I’ll return to Summer 2022 pics posts beginning with my March 6th post. I strayed from those Summer treks to do my Blogiversary post, then a few wintry posts. Now I’m back on track and the next post will be about the blooming American Water Lotuses and a mysterious critter who was munching down on them. Who could that be?
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Love the summer/winter combination, and I screenshot your beautiful bridge photos. Thank you for sharing! Another post that really invited me along 🙂 (but yes, what ice can do is scary!! Been there)
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DiAnne – it is scary for sure. I am about ready to start work and hoping the power and/or internet does not go out. I did not walk this morning, but looked outside at 9:15 a.m. and saw no precip, so went out to run the car. I have to leave the house to do so and five minutes later, the sky opened up and freezing rain and graupel was falling. I had a slick and treacherous 25-foot trip back to the house! We still have DTE customers with no power and this freezing rain has thrown a monkey wrench into their restoration.
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What a brave woman you were to venture out in those frigid temps. Love your photos. I felt sorry for the birds on the mostly frozen water. I had to admit the winter scenes near the bridge were beautiful. Hope Michigan thaws out soon.
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Thanks Peggy. That frigid weather did my fingers in – it was the same two pairs of gloves I’ve always have worn in Winter, but my fingers were just frozen. Glad you liked the photos. I got as close as I could to them but didn’t want to get closer as I also felt sorry for them huddled together to keep warm and/or sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb them … they had it bad enough without me intruding. I hope we stabilize our Winter as well. We had another bout of freezing rain yesterday and I lost my internet for a few hours during the workday, then I only had one bar on my wireless the rest of the day which put me in slow motion for hours and hours – very discouraging. I finally just shut down last night as I had a lot of comments to get thru and it was taking forever. I decided not to walk this morning and try to catch up.
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Bad weather is never fun. Bad weather is coming for 2 days for us with tornadoes. Mother Nature is not nice for you or us.
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I hope you remained unscathed by the tornadoes Peggy. I heard on the CBS National News about tornadoes, but they didn’t pinpoint where or I’d have been worrying about you. Too many tornadoes for Arkansas since I’ve known you – I hope climate change is not increasing the tornadoes. I’d love to return to the “old normal” for weather.
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This evening will be really bad for tornadoes. We only had a few tornado problems yesterday.
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Peggy – you are in my prayers. I’m dreading this storm tomorrow, but tornadoes scare me much more. I hope you are at your daughter’s safe hideaway. I put on the national news to hear about the weather and a basketball game was on.
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I heard your weather was going to be dramatic. Good luck, hope you do not lose your power. Had several tornadoes, hail, flooding, and up to 9 inches of rain in different areas. We lucked out, but did have wind up to 70 mph. Lots of downed trees and power outages. Lots of houses damaged, but no deaths.
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Thank goodness for that Peggy. I wondered – I’m glad you had not damage and lucked out and there are so many weather events going on right now that the CBS national news does not know which one to cover. This morning it was rescuing people in California and/or providing food and supplies to those hunkering down in their homes and the Kentucky volatile weather. Yes, we had more dramatic weather last night – within an hour we went from clear and dry, to rain, to white-out/blizzard conditions and 45 mph winds. Then freezing rain and thundersnow and lightning. I shut down my computer and went to bed around 9:15 p.m. Went out to shovel – not a lot of snow, but it was wet and very heavy, so I just did the City sidewalk and porch and in front of the garage. Tomorrow it will be 46 degrees, so I won’t go out until later in the day and try to push it around tomorrow … meanwhile I have to catch up here on Reader later tonight and most of tomorrow as I’m two weeks behind.
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The snow shoveling does not sound like it is fun at all. Guess you will catch up on your blog someday. I seem to be slowing down on blogging. Have a bunch of things going on in my life that are keeping me busy.
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Well I got a few days of Reader done Saturday night, then I was in Reader from 7:00 a.m. t0 1:30 p.m. on Sunday a.m. Got all the way to March 1st. I went out to walk and it was too late – my critters were all in bed by the time I got there. I left food for them for tomorrow. I tried to shovel but there was still ice where the sun didn’t hit. I won’t be there due to another wintry precip morning. I hated being that far behind in Reader. You’ve had such bad weather that you have to put safety before blogging and if you get the chance to get out and enjoy nature when the weather is good, go for it. Soon you’ll be immersed in picking blueberries, hopefully not in scorching hot weather like last year.
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More rain this week for 3 days. Spring is usually wet here and messes up gardening, walking and a lot of others things.
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That’s not good Peggy … better than worrying about tornadoes or otherwise nasty weather, but still not good news. The rustic trails really take a beating here. I like Humbug Marsh, but despite them just opening in 2020 and having these elevated Trex walkways, the walkways are not elevated enough and you’ll be walking along, then suddenly there’s water on the walkway making it slick. Some of the walkways just end and you’re back on solid ground, or I should say mud, no matter the season. Luckily, at Council Point Park the walking path is elevated and the Creek, which is very low right now, could never rise over the walking path. I hope your perennials and blueberry bushes don’t get “wet feet” and they are damaged – that would be so disheartening.
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Have walked through water and mud several times this rainy early Spring to hike. Did just that yesterday up at the lake.
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It’s no picnic sometimes and I keep an old pair of street shoes and a garbage bag in the car in case I hit a bad patch of mud so I don’t get mud in the car. It’s not easy to get rid of the mud in the ridges of my walking shoes. I bought a pair of vinyl boots for when it was too wet – that would work well but they’re not made for walking too far.
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Ice is definitely not nice… Wow — you really had a whopper of an ice storm! The differing summer and winter views of Elizabeth Park canal are pretty striking. I love the picture of the big bridge with the snowy landscape around it. I’m surprised the snow isn’t covered with goose poop. 😉
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For sure … ice is scary, whether falling from the sky or here on the canal which flows from the nearby Detroit River. I thought it would be fun to include that Summer shot showing how the Canada Geese crowded all the kayakers (of which there were many out paddling that day). The Geese are pretty belligerent sometimes, whereas the Mallards and Pekins just mosey along, quacking their heads off and are fairly agreeable. I’m surprised the snow didn’t have more goose poop either. The walking path at the Park is certainly full of it and I’m constantly sidestepping it or lifting my shoe to do a “poop check”. I had 32 Canada Geese on my tail as I tried to feed the squirrels. The grass is greening up, so they were just being cantankerous
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Yay – I’m so glad you’re okay!! It’s so nice to read how you survived Olive’s path of destruction. Shame on Olive, except for the fact she forced her hand to get you to pause to read a couple of books and you wrote your blog post too. 😉 Wow – That’s a lot of geese and ducks – they do congregate where the open water is. I couldn’t imagine swimming in that cold water. They don’t seem to mind. Thanks for sharing the moments you ventured out to see the beautiful winter scenes!
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Yes, I survived Olive and now we have Winter Storm Piper which will deal you a snowy hand … we get our snow this Thursday into Friday, with 3-6 inches of heavy, wet snow. Great. Well, I’ll be inside and catching up here then. I did enjoy the respite and read books to stay ahead … it is a goal of walking and racking up miles and reading books to reach 25. I may have to have an asterisk that says “well I tried ….” I hope that is not the case. It’s a Catch-22 … if I read a book, then I get even more behind here in Reader, so that’s a dilemma. I could have gotten closer to those ducks and geese, but I felt badly for them and they were huddled together and/or sleeping and I didn’t want to be disturbing them as they looked miserable to me.
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Dang…yesterday it was sunny here. Today more snow is predicted. UGH!
It’s March though…let’s march right into it with some spring cleaning and weeding out stuff until all we find is things that bring us joy! 😉
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Sounds good to me Shelley. Now they say we’re getting a wintry mix and not the 3-6 inches of snow in our area, but they still said to stay tuned. So I guess that weather report comes with an asterisk. You need more snow like you need a hole in the head!
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⛄🥶🙄
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Thank goodness for books when the weather lets you down.
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Yes, that’s for sure Anne. I have years of catching up on books that were bought years ago and not read. I miss reading and putting up my goal for the Goodreads Challenge, made me accountable to myself, but it’s difficult to do with blogging and work. I had internet issues most of yesterday and no internet during work hours as a result of another bout of freezing rain.
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At least you had books!
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Yes, thank goodness. I told myself there were things I probably should be doing, but I thought I just needed an escape from everything for a while and books did just that!
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My son is still waiting for the electricity to come back on. The ice was beautiful, especially when the sun came out and made the world sparkle but so much damage! We’ll be cleaning up for awhile but luckily all the big branches missed our structures. I still love Michigan!
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I hope your son’s power is back by now? I know that almost 50,000 people still had no power, which is rough in this cold. That ice on the trees was pretty … the park where I walk every day had a lot of large broken branches laying around. I was fearful of the dead tree two doors down losing another branch and falling on the power line … when that happened to me (before we “met”) I wrote about how scary it was and showed photos that neighbors had taken. It was too close for comfort. I always thought I would like to live in a southern state or at least a state without snow, but with climate change, those states are now experiencing such dangerous weather, Michigan does look better every day. I have always lived in a four-season state … I grew up in Oakville, Ontario and moved to Michigan when I was ten years old in 1966.
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Power returned at 6 p.m. yesterday. Those power crews must be worn out. I’m very thankful for their work.
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Thank goodness! Yes, they have had a long row to hoe with this storm and it would be unsafe in ideal weather, so I can’t imagine the stress they are under in this weather.
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We picked the right winter to “fly south”, evidenced not only by your dramatic winter tales but also the generous dose of snow Colorado is getting this year. Every time we have to pick up leaves and branches from a winter rainstorm here in South Carolina, we remind ourselves we could be plowing out of a blizzard instead. Glad your power outage wasn’t longer or more impactful, Linda.
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I’ve thought of you several times this Winter Dave as I heard reports of Colorado’s snow. You sure did picked the best time to get out of Dodge, er … Colorado. We had another ice event yesterday, with freezing rain in the morning which thwarted attempts for our energy provider to restore power … some people are on day six without power and more customers lost power yesterday. I lost my internet again yesterday, then once it was back, but I had one bar on my wireless and it was very slow, so I finally gave up and shut down. I’m ready for Spring, but we have a snowstorm coming the end of this week. Sigh.
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Brrrrr. Those birds look cold. Winter sure has been interesting this year.
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Yes, I felt badly for them Jessica. I’d have gotten a little closer but they all looked so miserable that I hated to disturb them from their icy perches. Interesting weather for sure … snow and ice storms on each coast and bad weather in between. I hope we’re done with the ice for awhile, but we have a major snow storm coming the end of this week – sigh.
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Ice is great to skate on, for your drinks, to keep your food cool on a hot day! Many things actually. If you didn’t grow up with ice as a child and try to drive in it, you’re asking for trouble.
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For sure Wayne – we did grow up with it and I remember maybe one ice storm a year, usually in March sometime. Not these bad ice storms every week. We have had ice storms three times in the last week. I felt badly for these ducks and geese huddled together on the ice and in the frigid water in the canal. I know their oil in their feathers equips them to submerge in the icy waters, as does the way their feet are constructed so that they don’t feel the cold, but they sure looked miserable to me.
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Oh, yikes! Those winter scenes with the geese and ducks look so gray and cold!!! So sorry to read about the fire at your neighbor’s house. I must have been traveling if you posted about it before. I’m so glad you escaped from any damage other than a scorched garden.
You do love a challenge, Linda. Good for you on your Goodreads challenge. Now you have miles AND books to keep up with!
It’s a shame the weather didn’t cooperate with you getting photos of the ice sculptures. We have a festival in my hometown each year on Presidents’ Day weekend called Fire and Ice. The “fire” is a chili cookoff and laser show and the “ice” is ice sculptures downtown. Lots of ice sculptures. The problem we had this year was that it was too warm – the ice sculptures melted after just a day or so.
Not looking forward to returning to winter!
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The weather outside is frightful to borrow a line from a Christmas song. We had another bout of freezing rain yesterday. That took my internet down a few hours, in the middle of the (work)day and it was slow the remainder of the day, so I just gave up trying to catch up here or anywhere else. We have what they are calling an “impactful snow event” the end of the week – ugh.
I am excited for this Goodreads Challenge Laurie – I hope I have not bitten off more than I can chew with it, but yes, you are right, I love a good challenge. Waiting until I was retired to do it probably WOULD have been smarter … sigh.
I wish I could have gotten the photos and probably should have gone later, but I was trying to avoid a crowd and also thought being the only one at each sculpture, I could get better photos, but that was that – maybe next year? We have a “Fire and Ice” Winter event too, not near me, but it is very popular, plus the “Plymouth Ice Festival” is also popular, but also not near me. They have had too-warm weather in the past and melting issues as well. It is feast or famine.
I don’t blame you for wanting to stay put and donning a grass skirt and lei in favor of layers and boots. Travel safely when you do return.
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I always stop for a minute when you talk about Trenton! I live in Trenton too but Trenton, Ontario, haha. I like outdoor festivals in the winter unless it’s really cold which is what you had. The sculpture in front of the dentist office sounds cute. I always wonder how the Canada Geese and ducks stay so warm when it’s bitterly cold. A lady I know rescued a Swan the other day as it was literally stuck in the ice in the Bay. She took it to a sanctuary to be checked over.
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Lots of copycats for names Susan. 🙂 And you have mentioned Belleville in the past and we have a Metropark in Belleville, Lower Huron Metropark. I may not be going there for a while, even when the weather is better, as they have a toxic dump site in that city and trucked toxic chemicals from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment site and did not properly notify authorities here they were doing so. I felt so badly for those poor ducks and geese too. I got as close as I could without disturbing them as they huddled together or slept on the ice and I didn’t want to add to their misery. I’m glad they could rescue that Swan. We had someone chip away at the ice to rescue a goose I think it was, earlier this Winter. I follow the Michigan Duck Rescue & Sanctuary on Facebook and they do so many good deeds in waterfowl rescues, some which are injured and some (domestic ducks) which have been dumped by owners. It’s very sad.
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Sadly I found out this morning that the swan didn’t make it. She was taken to Sandy Pines Wildlife Refuge but I guess she had too much wrong with her. Toxic dump sites, that makes me cringe! I don’t blame you for staying away.
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Oh that’s sad Susan. Swans are so beautiful. I read some of Matt’s stories on the Facebook site and it makes you feel sad – sometimes line is entangled and cuts off a foot or a leg and he had a Pekin duck that was bitten by a Snapping Turtle and lost half of its beak. To see all those ducks, geese and swans living at this Sanctuary makes you smile though. Even if he says he can’t take anymore, he finds room for them and photos on his website show wall-to-wall waterfowl, standing room only at the pond. I’d love to volunteer there, but it is nowhere near me. I understand they made another unauthorized dumping at another site near the airport, also near another Metropark. Those three Metroparks are all within eight miles of one another, all along waterways (Huron River). Not good at all.
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Not good at all, why do they always dump stuff near water? Where I live there used to be the town dump right by the bay. But that was years and years ago, they didn’t know any better but they should know better now
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I agree with you Susan – years ago, everything got taken to the local dump, without a second thought. Now to put a paint can out in the trash is not encouraged. A few years ago, a park about 20 miles away, all of a sudden got an iridescent sheen on it. It turned out Ford Motor Company had been putting gasoline through a pipe for years and the pipe ruptured. I’ve not been back, but will go one day. At least that was only oil.
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That is an attractive bridge. It’s good they are working to preserve it. Didn’t even get a shot of the heart sculpture?
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That bridge is a popular spot for wedding parties to gather and also for homecoming or prom photos. I was there one Winter and a professional photographer was taking photos of the wedding party. The bride had a white velvet gown and a fur stole. They had a large wedding party all on the bridge – very nice. I watched the process and even asked if I could take a few shots for a post and they were fine with that. This bridge will have a century birthday in a few years and they have two smaller, similar bridges spanning the canal, but you cannot see the Detroit River and the background is not so nice, so I rarely take photos from there. No Eilene, I never returned there for a shot of the heart ice sculpture. The City had started blocking off streets to put up the tents and vendor stations, so I had to exit Downtown a different way. I’m usually fine with the same two sets of gloves, but this time, the wind helped shut down this walk pretty quickly.
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So far this year, we have missed any ice storms. Last year, one knocked out our electricity and I remember it getting pretty cold. I’m glad you had good books to read and made it through okay. Looking forward to your summer photos.
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You’ve been lucky and I hope it stays that way for you Rebecca. We had another freezing rain event yesterday morning which messed up my internet for a few ours and I had intermittent issues with it throughout the day. We have another “impactful Winter storm” (their words) coming Thursday into Friday, so I hope we don’t have any issues there. I miss reading, which I used to do more, but then I feel guilty as I’m always behind here. My next post will be a recap of the Water Lotuses which bloomed much earlier due to the hot and humid weather we had all Summer.
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I’m glad that you got your internet back.
It sounds like what you’re getting in ice, we’re getting in rain. We have a flood watch until Friday night. With all the rain coming, I really appreciated the beautiful weather that we had today. I hope the Winter storm doesn’t mess things up again for you.
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Thank you Rebecca. We have had another odd week of weather. Freezing rain and ice on Monday did in fact mess up my internet, on a work day no less. I have been trying to catch up every since. Today we had temps that were more like April and I never heard anyone on the news say “March: in like a lamb, out like a lion.” Is this not a thing anymore? We always said that on March 1st. Hope you did not have too many problems with the flooding. Michigan has a 3-6 inch snowfall coming Friday, but my area may not get the brunt of the storm according to today’s weather models. I’m looking forward to Spring.
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That was fun — to go with the floe.
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Yes, they seemed content but cold on their icy perches. I once was down at Dingell Park on the Detroit River and there were lots of mini ice floes and there were groups of waterfowls had claimed them and the floes kind of glided on by, occasionally clinking into one another. 🙂
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Were the birds playing dodge-em cars with the ice floes?
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Yes, funny as the ice floes were clunking into one another. The waterfowl just stood there, merrily going down the River, sometimes they’d be close enough for them to step from one floe to another. There was a woman throwing corn to the ducks as it could land on the ice, so she could feed them.
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That’s was fun. Beautiful ice Strom & out your electricity and getting cold.
I’am glad you had good books to read and you wrote blog post too.
The sculpture in front the dentist office sounds cute.
Thanks for sharing moments you venture out to see the beautiful winter scenes.
Excellent photography. I like, Bridgette!
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The ice is very pretty to look at rajkkhoja, shimmering on all the trees, almost magical, until it brings down trees and causes downed wires. Some people are in day six with no power which is really terrible. Glad you liked seeing the ice floes on the canal – I felt sorry for the poor geese and ducks there.
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Thank you so much! Linda.
I lik a ice pretty look .
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Miss Linda…………………………………I loved your “blogiversary” narrative ……………………I felt chilly seeing all of those geese swimming in the frigid waters!!!!
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Glad you liked my “blogiversary” narrative Ann Marie. Really, the most-used class subject ever. It was a mandatory class, so no wiggling out of taking it either. Those poor geese on the ice made me colder than I already was just to look at them. I was surprised the canal wasn’t frozen, as cold as it was that day and the day before. At least the ice sculptures didn’t melt that day- maybe next year I’ll get a chance to see and photograph some ice sculptures. On Saturday, February 18th Elizabeth Park had a Winter Festival and they were to have some ice carvers there. Saw the ad about it, but the Parks and Recreation Department didn’t bring in the ice carvers as it was too warm that weekend!
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Your premise that ice can be nice suggests your intrepid determination to get out there and walk. I like your photos and your story. Still, unless ice is in my beverage glass, I’m not sure I like it.
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Thanks Ally – as bad as the ice was at the canal, the roads were in great shape (if you shut your eyes at the potholes from our erratic weather), so that was another reason I figured it was a good day to venture out for ice sculpture pics. At least I had some photos for my efforts and 20-mile round trip.
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Brrr1 Seeing all of those geese it the water makes me cold.
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I know I’ve read their feet are equipped to deal with the ice and snow, but still …
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I’m surprised at how many ducks and geese are in the water – maybe more than usual as it was a relatively mild winter until lately? It seems like winter is extended more every year. Although the sound of sleet against the window is usually a sign of March IMO.
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You’re right Joni – there were a lot of geese and ducks in the water – there are lots of them at this park to begin with, but you have to wonder why they’d go sit on the ice or into the freezing cold water? The sleet last night is what made such a mess here and all the traffic accidents – more so than the snow. We got five inches of snow, but the rain ended up diminishing that total. It seems to me in all the years I’ve been on this earth, the only time we had ice storms was in March. I agree with you on that and maybe one time a year. A climatologist was on the radio the other day and he said get used to all these ice storms because of the warmer weather in Winter, that freezing rain, rather than snow is going to fall. Great. A lot of people here go ice fishing. They put their shanty up and leave it there and go all Winter until sometime in March when the DNR has a date they must be taken away. That date passed in February sometime as the ice never got thick enough and we’ve had a few ice rescues of people who went out onto the ice and fell in as it wasn’t solid enough.
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Oh no, I was so looking forward to kitschy ice sculptures 😦
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I was too Jeanine. 🙂 Next year I hope it will be better. But sometimes with these ice shows you get warm days and the sculptures melt too quickly … that would happen if it was held today. We had another storm yesterday and lots of ice this morning. The trees and bushes were pretty, but now some of it has melted. The weather is crazy.
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That doesn’t sound like fun. At all! We have the first crocuses (croci?) here and the weather is bearable. Altough, I’m starting to wonder if we will ever see “real” snow again around here. Stay warm!
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Well people kept wondering about the snow here too – where was it? I was NOT looking for it and the weatherman kept saying “be careful of what you ask for” and then this series of ice storms, another coming Monday morning. I saw the Snow Drops when walking today … they bounced back despite two ice storms and were looking good. You had a blog post of all crocuses (croci? I dunno about croci – you got me hanging on that one) last year didn’t you Jeanine? Very cool looking, like a meadow with yellow and purple crocuses and gnomes cavorting through them … okay, gnomes standing in the field.
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They are already up but not in full bloom yet. I’ll take some new photos for you! Stay warm!
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OK, thanks Jeanine – we all need a good dose of Summertime right about now!
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My but that’s a lot of Canada geese in one place! I wonder what has drawn them? Perhaps it’s “location-location-location,” what with that lovely bridge and beautiful park–even in winter. Your photos show them off to advantage, Linda! P.S. Love your subtitle too–“Going with the Floe.” Very clever and fun!
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Thanks Nancy, glad you liked this post. There are a lot of geese at this park to begin with but it is pretty amazing to see them all gathered in one place, especially on a brutally cold day like this was. It could be “location-location-location” as it is beautiful venue all year around. The bridge will have a centennial celebration in a few years. It is where people come for photos of their wedding party, or homecoming or prom pictures too.
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I can see why it’s a favorite location for special-occasion photos! Let’s hope the city can keep it in good repair to last another 100 years.
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Yes, very picturesque Nancy, no matter the season. I hope the City takes good care of it, so this ornate bridge will remain a centerpiece of this park for years to come. It is a county park and park goers don’t pay anything to access the island where this park sits on.
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Snow I can handle, ice not so much! Do you notice the cold bothers you more as you get older? I would know myself but we have had such mild winters I don’t know. Oh, and the fact that I don’t go out in it much! 🤣
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I don’t even like snow – what a malcontent I am Diane! Did you finally get to drive your new 4-wheel drive vehicle in the snow? We never had any snow really until that late January storm and you’re likely the same there. This Friday storm was crazy. I tried to shovel Saturday morning and just shoveled a path on the City sidewalk and the porch and a small path from the door to the garage … very heavy, ice-laden snow. Most of the snow melted by the end of Saturday – not here though as the sun doesn’t hit it. Went out late today and it was still icy … we’re getting more icy precip tonight, so I’m not sure why I bothered.
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I am not missing the nasty winter weather that you got. But I salute you for going out in the bitter cold.
Also, your photos are not coming through in my reader. I wonder if it has to do with switching from the WordPress app to the JetPack app.
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Maybe next year I’ll get to see the ice sculptures. I figured I’d take photos two times of the 2022 wintry weather here in SE Michigan. I’m not only behind in Reader (9 days this time), but I have lots of photos from 2022 to get through yet. I’m sorry to hear that about my photos JP. I had some issues with Reader about three weeks ago and loading photos when preparing a blog post took forever and would freeze the post. I know there were some issues with the JetPack app but I thought they were resolved – apparently not. I don’t have the JetPack app as I only access WP through my computer.
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