Susan here, deep in February. We’ve had a few snows this year, not great amounts, but lovely and not too challenging for routine things. Yesterday we had several inches of snowfall, yet today the sun came out, temps rose, and it’s already melting. Spring seems not too far away at this point, so here I am with a little praise of snow before it’s all gone. There's never quite enough of it for me!
I was raised in way Upstate New York, where the winters were long and deep and white. And though I’m in Maryland now (not the most wintry of wonderlands), I will always love snow and winter. A heavy winter season can be a trial with roads and cold and hazards, I know. But my memories of NY are a kid’s memories; I didn’t have to drive or get to work. To me, winter brought snow, snowmen/snowpeople, snowball fights, skiing, skating, making snow forts…and snow days! The snapping cold, brisk air, the blue-blue skies and black lace trees and blankets of white; cold pink noses and hot chocolate; and when it snowed, the world grew quiet and filled with peace for a while, and I soaked that in, too. By the time I was a mom with a house full of boys loving snow days somewhat exuberantly <cough>, snow days were a bit less quiet. Now that the house is less populated, I've rediscovered the peace of a good snowfall that cocoons from the world for a while.
So whether you’re loving the quiet beauty of your snowy yard, or muttering as you shovel once again or scrape ice off your car—or whether you are sweltering in some southernmost climate wishing for a little cool air!—let’s take a snow day on the blog. Here are a few snowy images, with a few snowy quotes to go with. Enjoy!
Kindness is like snow—it beautifies everything it covers. - Kahlil Gibran
Snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches. - e. e. cummings
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.
- Henry David Thoreau
I used to be Snow White, but I drifted. - Mae West
There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance. - William Sharp
Here a small boy says: "It snowed last year too; I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down
and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea." - Dylan Thomas
Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees; snow grew overnight on the roofs of the houses like a pure and grandfather moss, minutely-ivied the walls and settled on the postman, opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunder-storm of white, torn Christmas cards. - Dylan Thomas
How do you feel about snow, winter, or snow days?
Are you over it, or looking forward to just one more snowfall for another snow day and a little more hot cocoa before spring and a new season arrives?