I am praying for a Blizzard, but everybody else is praying against me so I think it will not happen at this end of the year, maybe when winter comes again. (You can't go to Little House on the Prairie country and not have a blizzard!! Yes I read all those books while growing up - several times!)
First though, before I begin to enthusiastically discuss snow I will show you the results of my attempts to photograph real live snowflakes just like on the Christmas cards. These photos are the result of me standing outside in full view of everybody and taking photo's of my own arms. I think the results are worth the embarrassment! Snowflakes really do look like the ones on cards - if the conditions are just right. For those of you with enquiring minds here is a link to a site that explains the necessary conditions.
Now this is a composite picture of the view from my front door when I first arrived here, I will make another one showing the absence of snow soon - after tonights deposits have melted.
Watching the melting process has been fascinating, the first and most obvious curious thing I observed was that snow does not melt evenly. You can have an area that is to all appearances equally covered but it melts in patches - with some spots holding out for days while all the snow around it has gone to a watery grave.
And then there is the freeze thaw cycle, which creates art forms out of ice. I missed taking pictures of some of the best because I did not have my camera in my pocket and when I came back they were gone, imagine water frozen in the act of running off a corrugated iron roof ... makes amazing parallel curves reminiscent of upside down ocean waves.
The freeze thaw cycle causes the snow lying on the ground to form three dimensional ice castles of ethereal beauty, I tried to take pics, even got down on my stomach in the snow another potentially embarrassing moment, but I don't think anybody saw - and too bad if they did! I fear my skills were unable to capture the enchantment, but I'm going to make you look at the results anyway!!!!!
Have you ever noticed that if you park your car on the lawn for any length of time all the grass underneath turns yellow and dies? Well I was fully expecting the grass to be dead when the snow melted, but it wasn't! Totally bamboozled me, particularly when it all died a week or so after the snow melted - maybe it is vampire grass, can't survive in sunlight. (Retarded vampire grass cause it took a week to die!)
Note to self: don't walk on the grass in bare feet now that it has regrown!
Seriously I haven't figured out that phenomenon, all proffered explanations will be considered!
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