We’ve already had a tornado, an earthquake, and hurricane Irene in the past five months (that’s it – five months), so why not? Blizzard in October. 13″ of snow, 21 degrees, Halloween was cancelled. This isn’t a doomsday scenario, it’s reality.

Because the leaves hadn’t fallen off the trees yet, the snow snapped them like – well, twigs. Our town was/is a wreck. We’ve been without power for the last four days. Many people in my area still are.

So let’s take a look at what happened in my yard Saturday, shall we?

First I have this big bad white pine tree.

I actually LOVE this tree, and it’s almost 200 years old, and I can’t imagine something that saw the days of the Transcendentalists and the Civil War and the publication of “Origin of Species” and Lewis and Clark actually standing in the yard right next to me. It provides all the shade in my yard and a fresh layer of pine mulch every year.

I also fear this tree, for the simple fact that if it falls on my house, the 100-year old structure (it’s seen WWI, civil rights, and people still trying to deny “Origin of Species”) that protects my family, my business, and all my belongings will be crushed to smithereens.

Then we have this little baby maple which we planted about six years ago.

I love this baby maple. It was actually 13 when we planted it so it’s almost through adolescence (it’s been pretty easy on us all). During the storm when the snow was piling onto the leaves and they were hanging almost to the ground, Dave kept going out and shaking as much of it off as he could. We thought the tree would make it through pretty well.

And then we woke up to this:

WHERE’S THE TOP OF THE BABY MAPLE? It’s hard to see in this picture (taken from the 2nd floor) but the bottom of that fallen tree limb is about two feet across. Thank you for not crushing my roof to smithereens, big white pine branch.

So here are a few more shots from the storm. Driving home the point that it was still FALL when this blizzard hit – in case you didn’t get it already – I give you: snow hydrangeas.

And the peppers still growing in the garden.

The apples on the tree during the storm.

And the next day, after the snow blew off and the frost set in.

And finally, life goes on (this is the daddy of a little bird family that was playing in the branches of the fallen pine bough).

But will it for my baby maple?

This was just our little backyard drama, we really did fine in the big picture. The destruction from this storm has been huge and we were so lucky to come through with minimal damage. I’m still praying for people who lost everything in the other storms this year, and hoping that next year (or at least for the next five months) we will have an easier run of it.