The big one came. A two day storm with steady snow. We didn’t move a car for 3 days. Our world was quite transformed.  From drab brown to pristine white. From automobile dominated to walking the roadways free of traffic. Re-claimed for pedestrians, always a liberating experience.Fortunately, no serious damage or major power loss to our area.

Maggie took the sled out and proclaimed ” the sledding hill is open”.  Our cross country skis (made in Norway) came down from the rafters.  Skiing is an activity we have enjoyed throughout our life. Cross country in Rochester, NY, out the back door of Sun Root Farm.  Down hill skiing in the West and East.  Cross country again in North Carolina, although episodically.  The exhilarating experience of gliding down a mountain on skis can’t be beat.

Our dogs were most excited, couldn’t wait to get outside to run and play and roll.  They too enjoyed those car free streets.  It would be nice to shut off the streets on a regular basis and let us all come out and play!

The front of our home, the azaleas have winter snow blossoms.  Very large flakes, fluffy and dry, settling, drifting, slowly from the sky.  A beautiful sound, silence.

A view up from the creek, now buried in snow.

The bridge to the garden and meadow. Snow smooths contours, makes an angular world soft-curved. If we are lucky and receptive, it can do that to us as well. Too often the rush is to remove it, to clear the way, open the roads, resume the frantic pace we have been given reprieve from.  I’m in no hurry.

Front driveway.  Nicely empty.

More Azalea “snow blossoms”.

Snow and ice make fascinating patterns and texture. Incorporating materials randomly much like a collage.

Beech, always the one to hold on to it’s leaves till the last of winter.  Some color brought to the monochromatic landscape.

And so it is, snow.  Welcome, mostly.  A profound change of landscape, external and internal.