Snow is Beautiful, Snow is Evil

We finally had our first real snow of the season yesterday. When I woke up in the morning, the outdoor temperature was 45 degrees and the forecast of 6 inches of snow seemed quite ridiculous. By noon the temperature had dropped to 33 and it was beginning to snow. By 4pm we had around 6 inches and it was quite beautiful. By 8pm we had 8 inches and down on the golf course, limbs on the White Pines were snapping like toothpicks under the weight of the heavy, wet snow. It was heart-wrenching to hear, and suddenly what was so silent and lovely was now so devastating and cruel. Now as I'm typing this the temperatures are on their way to a forecasted 48 degrees and the snow is melting quickly. Not quickly enough, however, to have prevented all the tree carnage.

3pm...A winter wonderland

The birds were feeding like crazy which made for great counting #'s for the GBBC

Notice the big, wet flakes coming down

At this point the trees were still holding up well

8pm...I step out to take a picture because it's so beautiful. It should be completely dark now but it stayed this light almost all night. The glow on the left side of the horizon is from the lights of an office park, it looked quite ethereal. I was thinking this was pretty damn cool until I started hearing the snaps of these trees losing limbs, and my heart sank.

7:30am this morning, the damage isn't visible until you walk to the edge of the yard and look down the fairway.

It's a shame I can't enjoy it's beauty since I know how cruel a storm it was.