FIRST SNOW

snow at air bellows

Light powder snow fell all day long, little flakes, ice crystals, a dry feeling snow, but it stuck to everything, testifying to some icey wetness. I looked outside a little bit ago in the darkness and saw some places I want to photograph in the morning. Every leaf on the mountain laurel (ivy) has a pool of snow on the leaf, the white outlined with the edge of every leaf. The texture of this snow will make some nice photographs. I like the way it outlines limbs, but isn't so heavy it breaks the limbs. I like the way it goes around a tree trunk. The air was full of tiny snowflakes falling most of the day. I measured 3 inches outside the house. Dumptruck with blade on the front went by both ways an hour or so ago. Easy snow to push. It flew out of the way. I'm not worried about getting out of parking space. I believe I'll scrape the snow off the windows tomorrow before it starts sticking to the glass as ice. If I want to go out tomorrow or next day I won't need to shovel any.

There is something tactile about winter I'm beginning to appreciate. Snow. Plus, it seems like this year the cold hasn't been a nuisance to me. It's like something the air is doing for a span of time. In this region we live in long sleeve and short sleeve weather are each about half the year. At first, a long sleeve shirt felt better than short sleeves, because the arms chilled a bit. Longer sleeves solve the problem. Then a flannel shirt over a regular long sleeved shirt. Then a flannel shirt over a sweater over a long-sleeved tshirt. That's where we are now. Next is the winter coat.

I'm glad for this snow after the good rain we had to bring the water table back up a few inches. This snow will soak into the ground and go into the water table. We're going into winter not completely dry.

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