Sights and Sounds

Mornings are usually calm and bright at the lake, but on Easter Sunday it was a bit more colourful than usual. An ice storm on Holy Thursday coated everything in ice - cars, roads, branches and power lines. It also left me without power for 36 hours, which meant no heat, water or electricity. Luckily I had a stocked pantry, flashlights and lanterns, and I was able to haul a pail of water from the lake. In the summer a power outage is no problem at all, but having no heat was a bit inconvenient.

One of the good things that came from the storm, however, were these photos I was able to capture on Sunday morning. I was quietly cooking my breakfast when I noticed the pink sky behind me, so I threw on a coat and boots and headed out with my camera.

Everything was still coated in ice, so that the trees were white, which softened and muted all the colours. The lake was glass, reflecting the sky's colours back to it and as the sun rose, the sky was a living, ever-changing thing, in that way that sunrises have. Fifteen minutes and you might have missed it. No one out but me and the birds, crows and doves and smaller ones chirping and calling.

It made me think of lines from a hymn - Morning has broken, like the first morning. Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.

Some days you get walloped with an ice storm and other days bring mornings like this.