My husband called me on his way to work this morning to tell me that all of our friends back in West Virginia were being covered by heavy snowfall. Initially when I hear reports of snow I am jealous. There are some things I love about snow. I love watching the kids bundle up to go and play -making snowmen, snow angels and having snowball fights. I love how silent the world feels as the flakes drift softly to the ground. The world that seems to spin and scream with activity is stilled and muffled under a blanket of white. You feel a sense of awe and wonder, and dare to even whisper for fear of disturbing something sacred. I loved living in the Blue Ridge Mountains on snowy days. It was a day to drink hot chocolate, watch movies, catch up on a good book, make Snow Cream and cook a big pot of soup! Even though we homeschool we typically called school off for at least the first day for the children to enjoy nature's wonderful white playground.
However, there is an ugly side to snow. For about one day it maintains this silent beauty, undisturbed by the pressure to move it aside and return to normal life. The next day, worries come in about the missed income should your husband not be able to get to work. The silence is disturbed by the sounds of snow blowers and salt trucks, and the scrape, scrape, scraping sound of what seems to be a million snow-shovels. The packed snow on the steps has a slight melt off in the daytime, and as it is packed down by the feet of those coming in and out of the house, becomes this thick, immovable block of ice. With a little more melting the tracks of footprints from house to car become a muddy mess, and your house and car wear the tell tale signs that it is winter. I have traveled down icy hills holding my breath as I slid out into oncoming traffic because of a commitment at the community theater, and been more scared than I care to remember traveling down snowy mountain roads on the way home from church.
The truth of the matter is that I love snow - but I can live without it! As much as I might miss it at times, I won' t miss it at all while I enjoy the 71 degree high today where I live!
FYI - the picture above is of my girls, Kendra & Kaitlyn circa Jan '96 - I intend to caption it when I figure out how!!!!
I love snow for a whole day. The rest of the year I could live with mid 70's. We have had a very warm winter here. It was in the low 50's today. So unlike the last 4 years!
ReplyDeleteHi jewls,
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving a comment in my post Centering text and putting a caption below a picture. I have responded to your comment. If you have any further problem, please feel free to comment again.
Peter a.k.a. enviroman
Enviroman Says
Well, we weren't exactly covered by heavy snowfall. It was just and inch or two that didn't stick to the roads, but setteled on the trees and grass and glittered in the sun all day and kept everyone home unless you wanted to go out and it was easy if you did. Okay, the perfect snow!
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ReplyDeleteHey Julie,
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your blog, but haven't had much time to respond. I think I could live without snow and the COLD that we have been having. I would much rather come and join you at 71 degrees! Although, like Kate said the snow this time around is not much to notice.