Ice and freezing rain are fairly frequent visitors here in winter, and we had both of them come calling on us this week. This event started as rain, then turned to freezing rain, followed by sleet and finally a bit of snow. We had at least an inch of sleet and ice on the ground, which looked like a blanket of snow.
sleet and ice
Everything is covered in a crunchy coating of ice, and with temperatures forecast to be below freezing for several days it won’t be melting soon.
holly bush covered in ice
It’s pretty to look at, but hard to walk on for sure! The blueberry bushes were coated in a thick layer of ice, but the flower buds are still easily visible.
blueberry bush
The vegetable garden is covered in ice too. I have no idea if the greens will survive the cold and icy conditions or not. Only time will tell!
greens in vegetable garden
I’ve been keeping the bird feeders filled and cleaned of ice. We have many birds that overwinter here, and frequent visitors to the feeders have included cardinals, bluebirds, goldfinches and woodpeckers. The bright red male cardinals really stand out in the icy conditions.
icy bird feeder
cardinal in dogwood tree
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the wintery wonderland of ice we’ve got here. I’ll be back with more happenings from Happy Acres, including the return of Harvest Monday next week!
Stay warm. I live in Ohio and we had the same weather here.
Wow! I was impressed by your ice-coated bushes and then saw the cardinal! What a fantastic looking bird, just stunning.
Brrr…. What a lovely photo of the male cardinal. How I miss them.