It's been very cold and icy for the last several days here in North Texas. They are calling it an arctic blast. We get them every so many years. There's lots of staying inside, schools closed, businesses closed. It's very hard on several of the small businesses here that are trying to make it day by day and this long period of inactivity is putting some in very dire straits.. It's difficult to even imagine the hardships for the people who have no place to go or are caught in their cars and vehicles along the roadsides. Our heart goes out to them.
The ice began to drop (not snow... ice) on December 5. Very softly. As I took this photo there was just the tenderest kiss on my cheek as the tiny drops touched me. Each spearmint leaf is totally encased in a thin icy sheath .
By sundown the sleet/ice has drifted to 6 inches deep just outside our front door. It is so strange to see so much white and ice with not one single icicle... The ice fell and the temperatures were so cold that there was no water to drip and form the icicles..
This is that small mound of ice the next morning.. December 6. We cannot get out our front door.. or the back door where another smaller drift of ice has accumulated.
The streets are covered in a sheet of 2 to 3" of ice. So is everything as far as a person can see in every direction. Officials have been begging everyone to stay off the roads. Vehicles have been piling up all along the main roads and our county (and surrounding counties) was totally unprepared for a storm of this magnitude.
Today is December 9. As you can see the drift at the front door has dropped about an inch. My sweet DH tried yesterday to chop it out some so a person could squeeze between it and the door, but this is solid ice and will require more tools than what we have. (You can bet that will change! :))
The good news is that the sun is shining today. And what a glorious sight it is. The temperatures should remain above freezing for the entire day. Hopefully most of the ice will be gone by evening.
As for us, we've been toasty and warm.. for which we are extremely thankful.
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