It’s been a snowy winter so far in my area, central New Hampshire. The U.S. National Weather Service posted a map on its Facebook page (I can’t find it on its website) for snow totals for the Eastern U.S. through 22 February:
(Thanks, Bill Garrity)
The city closest to my area is Concord NH, which had received more than 84 inches of snow as of 22 Feb, compared with an average snowfall to that date of 45 inches, or an 86% increase in snow from average.
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I am loving it. In fact, it’s hard to imagine going back to only 45 inches of snow. It’s hard to imagine moving south to Georgia or South Carolina as we have been vaguely planning. Much as I love the low country, island life, shrimp & grits, marshes, tropical warmth, wide white beaches, and flat terrain, more and more this winter I am dreaming of living near the coast of Maine, because while the beach is necessary, I can’t give up its alter ego, snow.
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The snow that’s fallen since December has been deep and powdery, perfect for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing;
beautiful to look at, adorned with birds (click each for caption) …
… squirrels, playful dogs …
… plants …
… itself, mixed with sun, stark, shadow … ;
… and easy to walk through, even when it comes to my mid-thigh as I transverse the parts of the back yard where I haven’t shoveled a path (there are paths to the bird feeders but not to the birdbath or the motion camera).
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The sound when it falls,
that specific anticipatory silence,
is a tangible peace.
The fresh smell of it,
an airy icy messenger
from the cold wide sky,
intoxicates, invigorates, vitalizes.
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Snow
by Anne Sexton
Snow,
blessed snow,
comes out of the sky
like bleached flies.
The ground is no longer naked.
The ground has on its clothes.
The trees poke out of sheets
and each branch wears the sock of God.
*
There is hope.
There is hope everywhere.
I bite it.
Someone once said:
Don’t bite till you know
if it’s bread or stone.
What I bite is all bread,
rising, yeasty as a cloud.
*
There is hope.
There is hope everywhere.
Today God gives milk
and I have the pail.