the thaw

I used to think that thawing out was a good thing. Warmth, return to normal conditions. What I never ever saw before was that with a thaw you can see the damage from a storm. My poor magnolia tree will never be the same. I might have to finally give up on it. My procrastination has for once paid off. We were going to pull out all the builders' grade bushes in the front last fall. But I never got around to getting estimates. One bush has survived. Three others-it's too early to say, but it looks bad.
A lot of snow is melting. We are getting some rain tonight and several days and nights where the temperature stays above freezing. With that leaves all the salt, dirt and grime. All the broken branches. Possibly some flooding.

I neglected to mention the high number of broken branches we saw in DC when we went there 9 days ago. Stacks and stacks of them on top of feet of snow, just piled up and waiting to be picked up and thrown away.