Let it Snow!

We'll call this my first "real" snow at home. It's not the first time snow has fallen where I live, but it is the first snow thick enough to stick around inches deep, to cause that lovely sinking crunch under my shoes and to turn the world uniformly and gloriously luminous white during the daytime and eerie gray when night falls. We've had 3 or 4 flurries this winter, and we had a few light snows last year when we were living a bit east of here, but none of the storms has been as beautiful as this one.

As you may have seen in the news, much of this coast has had a rather unseasonable snow after a somewhat unusual winter. The storm followed a much-needed and record-setting rain that ought to help with drought conditions here. The snow topped off the dampened ground after several days of warm flirtation with springtime, during which the first shoots of daffodil and other bulbed flora poked up vibrant green fingers from the earth. Now those same shoots are under inches of powdery white and I hope they won't be worse for their temporary icy cover when it comes time to bloom.

If I were a bit more adventurous and had more energy (or if Dan had gotten a "snow day" from work so I would have had company), I would have gone to the arboretum a few miles from here to take photos of the ice-blanketed world in a more expansive and natural setting. As it is, I decided to take the pictures I could take from inside (or just a few steps outside) of our dwelling this morning, which gives you a sense of what I see when I simply step to the window to look outside.

I did put the cats on leashes (one at a time, of course) and put them outside to explore a little, since snow is a pretty new experience for our California-transplant cats. I wouldn't say that the kitties "liked" the snow, but they did tolerate a few curious moments of paw freezing and frigid air sniffing before whining, crying and hissing (MooMoo) or looking longingly at the door to the house and darting in as soon as it was cracked open (Monte). Both of them do enjoy the altered view from the safety and warmth of the upstairs windows, so we'll leave their appreciation of the wintery world at that for now.

Truth be told, I could probably enjoy a bit more snow than we get here, but the merely scattered snows are part of the reason we were drawn to this part of the country. Sure, we get to contend with oppressive heat and humidity during part of the summer, but we also get to see the leaves change and fall from the abundant trees in the autumn, we experience the riotous colors of springtime and we revel in the occasional day like today when the world is blanketed in jewels -- with all the giddy excitement of a long-anticipated Christmas morning and without the hassle of weeks upon weeks of icy roads and shoveling walks. In contrast to California's eternal summer or the frozen landscapes of the white North, we central North Carolinians get to taste all four seasons, albeit in a "lite" form.

I love it! I wouldn't have it any other way.