Apologies To Readers Who Have Had Quite Enough of Winter

I love a fresh, undisturbed snowfall. When I was a girl, and snow fell overnight, my mother used to waken my sister and me in the morning with the first verse from “The First Snowfall” by James Russell Lowell.

The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.

The snow predicted for Tuesday night didn’t begin in the gloaming (the last hour before sunset) but in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  Most schools had announced on Tuesday that they would close. Since the storm warning covered the entire state of Vermont – with some local warnings a little more dire than others –many Vermonters (including me) stayed at home and watched the snow come down all day and into the night. By Thursday morning we had a bit over a foot, on top of the 6 or so inches already on the ground.  The wind piled snow deep enough on the roof so that Thursday and Friday afternoons I raked the roof (Cassidy Engberg helped with the porch roof). This morning I shoveled the raked snow away from the porch so that as snow slides off the porch roof it doesn’t pile up by the windows.

I am overjoyed that after 3 days we have a bright sunny day and so much of the snow is still pristine. It has stayed very cold, so while the snow is no longer fluffy it’s still light and a far cry from Heavy Wet Stuff. Old Man Winter has realized that he’s neglected our part of Vermont. Just as we’re digging out, a storm  starting tonight that was supposed to be no big deal will suddenly bring 6 to 12 inches more. Gee. It’s like the weather in New Jersey. (That’s a joke, folks.) 

Click on the photos, taken today, to enlarge them ...

The sparkly snow photo below (be sure to enlarge this one) demonstrates a winter phenomenon called “diamond dust”, or light glinting off very small, very dry snow crystals. Sometimes at night there will be snow flurries of diamond dust, and that is nothing short of  magical. I’ve tried to take pictures of it before but I got a good one this morning. In photography, the light is everything.