I really love snow! It's so clean. The air is so crisp and fresh. When it falls, the world goes silent. I love it when it's new.
Unfortunately where I live it rains year round and that makes for some soggy snow. When it does snow it rarely sticks. If it does stick, it turns to slush as soon as it hits the ground. Cars and people start milling around and the landscape is a big cesspool of slippery, cold mud.
But I still love snow. I also love how it stops the world. I personally won't drive in it until the roads are totally clear. I've seen enough cars uncontrollably sliding into each other. Most of the time I won't even go walk in it. I'll watch it from the warmth of my house gazing out the window at the miracle of it all.
This year was different! The snow started falling on Christmas day and by nightfall we were covered! I woke up the next morning to eight inches!
...And it just kept falling!
I thought I'd try to walk in it at my normal walking time around 5am in the dark. I bundled up and added a headlamp to my outfit. OMG! It was powder! Dry, fluffy, powder! The streets were ice packed from the cars, very slippery and dangerous, but as long as I stayed on the grassy sides and sidewalks, it was glorious. No one is out and about at 5am so I had this wonderland to myself. Safe, nontoxic fun!
It snowed for about four days, stopping on the fifth, but remained dry and powdery. Such wonderful morning walks. At one point I attempted to make a snowman, but powder snow doesn't stick together and I couldn't form a ball.
On the sixth day I woke up hearing drips and drops. Rain. It's not going to last. I still headed out to test the snow. Still walkable. Everything is still covered, but the ice on the roads and sidewalks is starting to melt. Very slick and dangerous.
Toward the end of my walk, traversing through the park it came to me this is perfect snow for a snowman!!! Snowmen are so happy. I love it they will often last long after the snow has disappeared. Can I do this? I love making magical snowmen - the ones that just show up the next morning and people wonder where it came from? It wasn't there yesterday!!??
It's been a few years since I've made a snowman, but like riding a bike, recall is second nature. I rolled and packed the first gigantic ball. Then the second...but the second was too heavy to lift so I left it along side the first. This means I'll have to make two snowmen and I hoped my energy would last long enough.
I finished them then had to search for rocks for eyes. Then branches for arms. Mind you, I'm doing this in the dark!! My headlamp kept falling off my head every time I bent down. Also I was in a rush with time. I didn't want to get caught. I wanted it to be magical.
With two snowmen I thought I'd title it "LOVE" and make their branchy arms go around one another - that's because that second giant ball was left very close to the first. Happiness and love.
I trudged home, exhausted, but then I thought teenagers might destroy my lovers. So I trudged back with camera in hand. Unfortunately, it was dark and I couldn't get the flash to work...and their faces had already fallen off from the rain!! HAHAHAHA Too bad you can't see their arms around one another.
They make me happy. I don't think they last very long.
I went back later to see how my lovers were doing. LOL! THEY ARE MELTING. One is leaning affectionately into the other and both lost their faces. So in love they are faceless. LOL.
I attempted to patch them up and set the one up straight.
They are going to make me smile for a long time.
