Wednesday 10 January 2007

more snow

Once again it has snowed in the town that "NEVER sees snow". It has snowed all day- large clumpy snow, then small soft globs, almost like hail. This will have been our third significant snow for the season.

The snow really is beautiful as it falls.

I like the large clumpy flakes best, it is as though the Gods are having a pillow fight and the pillow contents are fluttering down to earth.

I have decided that snow is a living thing.

When it is born it is so fresh and light, and brings much joy to so many, especially the young and young at heart. Many can not help but stare at it in wonderment, oohing and arrhing and wondering about its future...will it still be there in the morning? How long will it stick around? Will it cause much destruction? How high will the snow pile grow?

Once it stops, we are left with the reality of it - a messy mass, that won't clean up after itself, quick enough.

Then later on, as it dies, the once crisp white fluffy snow; so pliable, enchanting, delightful in our hands, turns grey, and kind of decays into a slushy, muddy, repulsive slop. It is not fun anymore and we wish it would soak into the ground so our lives can return to normal.

As I look out at the pretty snow falling in such fascinating and erractic swirls, I kind of think it unfortunte that many, myself included, will be cursing natures little gift - the life of snow.
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3 comments:

Catherine said...

I read this post at my job earlier today and was so excited for the time when I could comment in the comfort of my own home. You write beautifully, Strauss! "...Snow is a living thing." I don't know that I'll ever think of snow in the same way again.

Thank you!

Muse said...

I agree, this is a lovely post. I think of the people who only want to see the new fresh snow. They come, they visit, they ski and they are gone. It is so different for those of you who live with it everyday. Every thing has a cycle.

You are so insightful. Another one for the SUN.

Pendullum said...

That was beautiful...
And I eagerly await our first snowfall so that I can relive your words...