The brooks and streams at my house turn into rivers!
Here in the Northeast last Thursday, the weather reports were rather dire, calling for heavy rains, perhaps turning to ice. Just before the holidays, we’d much prefer hearing of a nice snowfall, instead. Well, they were right about the rain – it came down fast and furiously – four-inches or more! Fortunately, in this area, things didn’t get too icy. However, further north, people didn’t fare as well. Many, many thousands are still without power after experiencing a true ice storm and my heart goes out to them.
At my farm in Bedford, NY, there are a few rivulets that are, for the most part, tame and gently flowing. On Friday morning, it was so interesting to see them as little raging brooks. I thought I’d share some photos taken that morning of how they looked. And my sister, Laura, sent me some pictures of her backyard. She lives on what is usually a quiet and gurgling, flowing river in nearby Connecticut. But, when rain falls that intensely, things can get pretty exciting and you experience, first-hand, the awesome force of nature.
Gracious! I hope the water line remains a safe distance from your house! Stay safe and warm.
Posted by: Karen | December 15th, 2008 at 3:07 am
I agree, I wish we could have the sound effects from your stream. I bet the quite babbling brook has turned into a rock concert! Hope the waters are starting to recede today.
Betsy
Posted by: Betsy Mech | December 15th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Wow! The force of that water reminds me of the hurricanes! Interesting though how the freezing weather has hit areas everywhere. And all of it plays a role in the ice caps becoming warmer. I think we are playing a balancing act. Repeated record freezes in my neck of the woods and it's still fall! Cabbage is loving it! Oh, really beautiful fungi in the one pix. Thanks, Martha for taking all those pix and love to all who are frozen in at the moment...be safe...take care!
Posted by: tinay | December 15th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Martha, have you started building your Ark yet?
Your artistic "eye" really shows in these wonderfully composed landscape photos. You really should do paintings of your beautiful farm.
Oh, can't wait to see you on "Top Chef" Wednesday night!
Posted by: Jon | December 15th, 2008 at 5:38 am
What wonderful photos capturing all those gurgling waters! Hopefully, the water will soon recede and be calm once again.
Posted by: Sherey | December 15th, 2008 at 6:31 am
We'll be waiting for photos of your first holiday snowfall soon!
Posted by: MMC in San Diego | December 15th, 2008 at 7:28 am
This ice storm affected central Massachusetts into a state of emergency. There are still households with no electricity. These storms are very powerful but very curious with the eastern part of the state receiving the four incnhes of rain, no ice, no loss of electricity, and no state of emergency.
Posted by: Teresa Touey | December 15th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Hi Martha, I love these photos of the results of that tremendous rainstorm in your area. Laura's property looks like it is really flooded near her home. Your small streams and brooks look like rushing rivers with rapids. We are having rather cold weather here in the Puget Sound area. It's only 27 degrees right now, even with the sun shinning! It snowed on Saturday night and is supposed to snow again on Wednesday. The cold spell is supposed to continue all week and until.....! It isn't even offically winter yet and we may have a rare White Christmas! How lucky you were to miss the terrible ice storm. My heart goes out to all of those affected. Stay warm. Jan P.S. Your chili was delicious!
Posted by: Jan Erickson | December 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Hello Martha,
Last year at this time we here in Oklahoma had one of the worst Ice storms in our history. All our beautiful trees here in Tulsa were were heavy with ice, which broke so many limbs, electricy out, and the city was mostly dark. We did get a room in a hotel after traveling all over the city, where we stayed for three days. It takes a lot of time for the electric lines to be fixed and things back to normal. Our trees are still strange looking after having so much damage, however, we are hoping a few years will take care of most problems.
Your little brook looks so good to me. It dosen't look wild, just alive. Thanks for sharing your pictures. I especially like the picture of your new Chow, Genghis Khan. What a cute face he has. We readers still miss Paw Paw but we love this new little pup.Great choice.
Posted by: Sylvia | December 15th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Even though Mother Nature has her way sometimes, I WOULD NOT like the debris left behind from those swollen river banks! (I HATE CLEANING UP MESSES!, especially when everything was beautiful to begin with! [c'est la vie, I guess...] ) I remember Laura's previous picture with the mallards gleaning the bird seed underneath those feeders - despite the existing flooding, her yard looks lovely.
I have taken down my rain guage so it wouldn't freeze, then crack...I am positive though, that based on the rain we got also, there would've been at least 4" of rain in it! In retrospect, it IS good for the water table - can you imagine, though, how much snow it would have amounted to?!!...they say that an inch of rain is about equivalent to a foot of snow. Maine got ice, though...I wondered how Skylands fared, Martha...
Man, I've been busy today! I'm rather late in posting. My business is a mail and parcel center (they call us mpc's - like a [The] UPS Store), and I've been busybusybusy! This is THE WEEK for holiday shipping, and I'm hoping to be able to keep up, Martha, this week with your blog, but if not, I at least will be reading and staying current, knowledge-wise, in the Martha-world, even if I can't post. Boy-oh-boy, though - revenue-wise, I could stand to be this busy e-v-e-r-y day of the year! (But then, how would I be able to Martha-blog?!!)
(Woe is me...)
=^..^=
Posted by: Cindy Bricker | December 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Cool pictures, fingers crossed that you do get a bit of snow soon, it isn't Christmas without a white blanket on the ground! The tree fungi picture is a great capture. My husband's grandmother painted a lovely scene on a large fungi, we have it hanging in our kitchen.
Catch today and be happy,
Lorraine
Posted by: Lorraine | December 15th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Martha better bring the Skylands 2 down from Maine and use it at the farm
Pam from California
Posted by: Pam from California | December 15th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Hi Martha:
The fast flowing brooks are beautiful. I have a great desire to take my shoes and socks off and wade in and let the current swirl around my feet and legs. OOoooooo....if only it were July and the babbling brooks were just like that. I loved your pictures.
Linda
Phila., PA
Posted by: Linda | December 15th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
What beautiful pictures!! They would make good desktop backgrounds. If only they had sound.....
Posted by: Erica | December 16th, 2008 at 5:11 pm