Our poor maple tree

Remember on Friday I mentioned the frost/ice buildup and another storm on the way? As you know from my weather update, we had that storm plus a power outage. What some of you don't know is that we had yet another blizzard on Monday! That one wasn't even predicted, although light snow and strong winds were. The winds got more than a little out of hand, and they wreaked havoc. Many people were stranded.... on the road, some at their jobs, or wherever they were. One school district even kept their kids at the school overnight rather than risk sending them home on the busses. There were total whiteout conditions. We even had an overnight guest because someone couldn't make it home. All that because of an inch or two of snow + up to 50 mph winds. Thank goodness the old snow was frozen down because of the earlier ice!

Anyway.... I'd shown you a photo on Friday of the branch that had fallen off our maple tree. That was just the beginning. You should see the poor tree now. Okay, you can... here are the promised pictures... taken before Monday's blizzard.

It wasn't just small branches that broke off. Look below at the bigger branch (to the left of center) that cracked off.

Notice that branch hanging straight down in the photo above? It came down and landed in a rather interesting way later. See photo below. It's still standing there like that.

While the tree was so frosty, I thought the oriole nest had gotten blown down. Even when I was out taking pictures, I couldn't see it. I looked for it on the ground, but couldn't find it anywhere. Lo and behold, once more of the frost fell off, I did see the nest from the window... still hanging solidly in place way up there! Too bad that branch didn't come down so I could see how the nest is fastened on there!

Oh, and below is just a shot of our poor miniature lilac bush in front of the house. I sure hope it's able to straighten up once all the snow melts off of it.

Let's see.... it's still only January, isn't it? *sigh*

(P.S. I know the videos below weren't working again for a while, but I believe they are now.)