Mother Nature's Beauty and Wrath in Massachusetts

Today is the 1st anniversary of a blogging group known as New England Bloggers. To mark the day, we're having a blog carnival. Go and check out all of the participants at Thoughts from an Evil Overlord.

I belong to New England Bloggers because I am a proud native and lifelong Rhode Islander. In my 54 years I have lived in six houses but never more than 15 miles from the first. Paul and I have traveled to many parts of the world but this is home and it's always good to come back.

Rhode Island has many claims to fame. In elementary school everyone everywhere learned that we are the smallest state with the longest name: The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. We are also the yardstick used by national reporters to describe the enormity of something, such as "an iceberg the size of Rhode Island" or "a wildfire the size of Rhode Island...." You get the idea. It's nice to be mentioned but I wish we weren't always used to describe a disaster.

I may have misspoken when I said "everyone learned." As I mentioned, Paul and I have traveled quite a bit in the U.S. as well as overseas. Unfortunetly I have to say that people outside the U.S. often know where Rhode Island is but Americans, not so much. When asked where we're from, I have begun just saying New England. I got tired of being asked "isn't that an island off New York?" when I said Rhode Island. I guess geography isn't taught in school anymore.

Anyway, I am also a tenth generation of this region. My ancestors arrived in 1631 when it was then just called the New World. Because I couldn't narrow down what I wanted to say here, I decided do a photo essay.

Everyone has also heard about New England winters. Here's a story about a doozy. Back in mid-December 2008 Central Massachusetts experienced the worst ice storm it had seen in a decade. Damage was primarily the result of fallen trees and utility wires and poles, which were coated in a heavy layer of ice. A million people lost power and a state of emergency was declared in the state. Even in this day and age, Mother Nature proved she was in charge and many people were without power for up to two weeks.

The pictures below were taken by Carolyn, my friend and cousin-in-law, who lives in Oakham, a little town of about 1700 people. Taken on a sunny day one or two days after the storm, you can see the beauty and devastation Mother Nature wreaked on this rural area.

Hello everyone. I'm Carolyn who took the ice storm pictures. I was amazed that like snow flakes, each tree that was broken was in a different stance. Some of the sights at dusk looked like hooded monsters lurking in the woods and by each roadside! Our power was out for 7 days. "Magnificent Destruction." I took a total of 168 pictures! THAT'S why God created the digi-cam!!!