Every Time It Snows

We've lived here for over five years; and every time it snows, I can hardly wait to grab a few spare moments to walk around outside, camera in hand, and try to capture a piece of the beauty that is all around.  I say "try," because honestly, there is no way to describe in words or capture in a photograph how wondrously gorgeous it is.  

I 

LOVE

SNOW!

I do have to laugh a little at myself, however, because really, the scenery hasn't changed much since the last time it was snowing and I was snapping pictures!  It's sort of like how we would act when we went on vacation every year when I was growing up:  always to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, always to the same beach cottage, always visiting "our" beloved lighthouse...and always taking pictures of it.  Why did we do that?  The lighthouse certainly hadn't changed from one year to another, but inevitably, we would come home from vacation, get our film developed (back in the pre-digital camera days!), and discover at least two or three lighthouse pictures--just like the ones we had taken the year before...and the year before that...and the year before that...

So it is with the snow.  

I take pictures of the view out our front window (this first photo was taken on Wednesday morning, when we barely had anything on the ground, but already schools were cancelled, businesses were closed, almost all of Jeff's co-workers didn't come to work so he had to go in on his day off, and he was ranting a little bit about how wimpy these Valley folk are when it comes to snow!...I'm one of them, so I'll simply say...well...he's right...but hey, we like snow days, and it's fun to cancel everything and stay home so we can go sledding and eat snow and drink hot chocolate with little boys with rosy cheeks!...so what's the big deal?!)...  ;-)

...and a few hours later, the same view, but with actual snow covering the ground (at this point, Jeff was starting to come around and admit that maybe the forecasters were correct and maybe it was wise for schools to be cancelled and maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to tolerate living here in the Valley for a little longer).  ;-)

I take pictures of Josiah and David sledding with the next-door neighbor girls (who are Old Order Mennonites, but they don't let their bonnets and dresses stop them from having a blast in the snow!).

I have, in my mind's eye, a certain way I'd like to snag a photo of the snow blanketing the pine needles...

...but I can never quite capture it...

...but I try.  Every year.

The bright holly berries always grab my attention with the splash of color they bring to the otherwise muted landscape.  But how many pictures of snow on holly do I need anyway?

This particular storm began with ice rain before the snow started falling; and on these leaves, I noticed how the ice was visible under the snow.  I must have a picture of that!

But the thing--the one thing--that was unique in my stroll around the yard was this:  stumps of wood left from when we had some trees cut down last summer.

We used the trees for firewood, but these stumps were far too big to split with the wood splitter our kind friend Kevin Driver let us borrow.

So here they sit, outside our woodshed, almost too heavy to do anything with.  I suppose we'll someday find a way to roll them into our pasture so our goats can have fun climbing on them.

I know they're not beautiful in the conventional sense of the word; but when I lingered by them and looked more closely at the wood, I began to appreciate the texture and the shades of color and the lines of these sculptures made by nature itself.

To me, they looked like pieces of a huge board game, abandoned by giants who had once found entertainment there but had then wandered away to search for diversion elsewhere.  Giants must not be very good at putting their toys away, so these pieces got left out in the snow to be capped with soft white hats.  

If you think from my whimsy that I've been immersed in the land of Narnia for too long, you just might be right.  ;-)