Snow and Snowmen

I have always loved the snow. I grew up in northern “flyover” country where it snowed every year and I could pretty much count on snow being on the ground at Christmas time. And it would be there for a long time… you know, until spring! lol

Now I live in the Pacific Northwest region where snow is not even an every year occurrence. When it does snow here, where the cities don’t have any snow removal equipment, the traffic is a snarly mess. I have learned that, though I took my driver’s test in the snow… 34 years ago… you don’t drive in the snow here! The un-removed snow packs down on the roads with all the cars driving on it, making it a sheet of ice. Then you have all the hills round about. Put those two things together and driving is treacherous. And most of those on the roads think they are good drivers, but in actuality they are NOT! Yikes.

I do still love the snow. It is so quiet when it has snowed. The ground is blanketed with a fluffy (or very wet…) intricate quilt of whiteness. All the sounds are dampened, making everything still and peaceful. And my yard actually looks great covered in snow. You can’t see the weeds or the bare patches. It’s all uniform and smooth. Ahh. ‘Twould be SO nice would it were so.

Did you know that a single snowflake is an intricate specimen of exquisite symmetry and stunning beauty? And that there are no two snowflake duplicates? So no snowflake twins anywhere. How amazing that the Lord of Creation would put such beauty in microscopic details! I like to think of snowflakes as ‘snowmen embryos’.

I love watching the snow fall. And I used to love how the falling snow looked from inside a moving vehicle. Even now I get an excited feeling when I watch the snow fall. Maybe this stems from childhood memories of blizzards, hugely tall piles of snow along the streets, snow forts, ice skating rinks in the backyard and snowmen.

putting on the details…

Arrow’s Snowman

These photos are of Arrow’s Thanksgiving snowman. Yesterday another snowman was built, but the warmer air caused that poor fellow’s upper two thirds to slide and then fall over sideways! And he fell over before I could get a photo of the guy. All the “details” are from a ‘Snowman Kit’ I purchased from Land’s End a number of years ago.

One thing I try to do is decorate our family dinner table in fun ways. Not every meal, but for a fun change. I have purchased paper plates with snowmen on them (and other designs) and then use those under clear glass plates. It makes the table festive, yet frugal since I can re-use the decorative paper plates! We also have some napkins (I have used only cloth napkins for nearly thirty years) and napkin rings with snowflake designs. I will try to get photos of these and put them into this post.

We enjoy reading books and poems that pertain to the season, weather event or holiday at hand. Here is a short list of some we really enjoy reading & looking at when it has snowed:

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

The Snowflake by Kenneth Libbrecht

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner

‘Snow-Flakes’

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

Silent, and soft, and slow

Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take

Suddenly shape in some divine expression,

Even as the troubled heart doth make

In the white countenance confession,

The troubled sky reveals

The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,

Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

This is the secret of despair,

Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,

Now whispered and revealed

To wood and field.

____________________________________________

‘The Snow That Never Drifts’

by Emily Dickinson

The Snow that never drifts —
The transient, fragrant snow
That comes a single time a Year
Is softly driving now —

So thorough in the Tree
At night beneath the star
That it was February’s Foot
Experience would swear —

Like Winter as a Face
We stern and former knew
Repaired of all but Loneliness
By Nature’s Alibit —

Were every storm so spice
The Value could not be —
We buy with contrast — Pang is good
As near as memory —

_______________________________________________

‘A Little Snow Was Here and There’ by Emily Dickinson

A little Snow was here and there
Disseminated in her Hair —
Since she and I had met and played
Decade had gathered to Decade —

But Time had added not obtained
Impregnable the Rose
For summer too indelible
Too obdurate for Snows —

____________________________________________

‘Snow Flakes’ by Emily Dickinson

I counted till they danced so
Their slippers leaped the town,
And then I took a pencil
To note the rebels down.
And then they grew so jolly
I did resign the prig,
And ten of my once stately toes
Are marshaled for a jig!

______________________________________________

‘Winter Morning Poem’
Winter is the king of showmen,
Turning tree stumps into snow men
And houses into birthday cakes
And spreading sugar over the lakes.
Smooth and clean and frost white
The world looks good enough to bite.
That’s the season to be young,
Catching snowflakes on your tongue.