A Brief History of Snow

What the hell is Snow without Maple Syrup ???????

The snow in that photograph is so white.  Is that really New York snow or did someone photoshop this?

 
We often see a pair of cardinals at our feeders, sometimes two males and today, for the first time, three males and one female at the same time.

It probably says something about the commitment of our neighbors to keeping their feeders filled and with the deep snow having hardened and become icy, it is not hard to imagine that some might be thinking twice about their own safety before their feathered friends.

Our '98 Volvo V70 XC which entered service in August of 1997 under the ownership of somebody else, is the answer for everything that Wisconsin winters have thrown at it.

We got it lightly used at the turn of the century and it has never been let us down. So much so that I have come to take for granted the ease with which we get around in bad weather and awful conditions.

When it is clear that the magic brakes have come into play, even I know to slow down because it is easy to go too fast to stop sensibly. We love winter.

The clean whiteness, the quiet, the slowness forced upon travelers if they are able to move at all, all make us happy to be here.

Well, okay, the wide white grin on the man driving the plow as he makes that one last high speed pass to seal up the drive with snow that has been plowed so often that it is as heavy as wet sand: that, we do not like so much.

A village of shanties appears miles out on the frozen lake and there are ice fisherman who don't even own boats or poles to enjoy the sport in nicer weather. Specialists.

So far this season, two who have gone through the ice have died and there are about five weeks to go before the shacks have to off the lake. There will be more.

A few years ago, a little girl of nine who had been under water for quite a while, was brought back and made it to school the next year. Her young father drowned.

Pick-up trucks and SUVs have gotten massively bigger and heavier and though there is not a person alive with any real need to be out there, they will go and they will drive on roads plowed by the fishing club and some will not come back.

 

I  was  born  &  raised  in  Chicago,   Lake  Effect  Snow  is  the  ultimate  challenge  to  weed  out  the  Winter  men  from  the  boys,  metaphorically  speaking,   especially  when  you  throw  40  MPH  gusts  of  wind  into  the  equation.    By  the  way,  the  Polar  Bear  Club  meeting  is  still  a  "go"  for  the  1st  weekend  in  February.....

 
Somebody, and I think it was P. Murphy, made an oblique reference to "Cincinnati Chili" and though I didn't get it, I am sitting here jonesing on a five way and there is nothing to be done about it.

I LOVE beautiful snow-covered winter days and nights! I grew up with the "lake effect" as well - on the North Coast...........north coastal Ohio/Lake Erie.............Lake Erie was my backyard. On a clear day one could see Canada................
 
I remember ice shanties on our lake fishing. My father's even had a teeny pot belly iron stove! I remember around walking to the islands on the frozen ice........I remember 15-foot snow drifts completely shutting us in, having to phone a neighbor to dig us out!
 
I loved the recent snow we were blessed with for a few beautiful weeks...........but, alas,  it is all but gone now, replaced by rainy, grey muddy yucky days. Bring back that gorgeous diamondesque lovliness anytime!
 
I don't love to DRIVE in it much, I drive a Mini Cooper, and they are a bit lightweight for sereious snow travel....so I stay home with my hot cuppas, a good roaring fire and read Peterman's Eye.
 
Life is pretty savory.
 

Everytime I read about very heavy snowfalls, my mind drifts back to the Donner Party and their fate. As pretty as snow can be, it is still quite dangerous, and like all aspects of nature, if not respected, is very deadly.

  
The snow banks that line the streets have enough age and compression on them to wreck a car.

Maybe this says something about those of us who live with snow: I was out walking the dog and came upon an unsteady old man supporting himself with a cane and chopping the dark gritty ice in his driveway approach with a heavy chisel in the other hand.

"Sir," I said making reference to the warming sun and pleasant breeze,"if you were to wait a few hours, this would all melt by itself."

"I know," he responded, "that's why I have to get at it now."

So, apparently, it was to him like gutter boating: you have to get out there and do it while you can.



 

Some of us who haven't experienced a real Wisconsin winter really long to test ourselves against it.  I suspect I'd need plenty of chores and hobbies to keep my sanity.  And perhaps an artificial UV lamp.
 
It's merely cold and overcast here in SC today but I'm thinking that a hearty dose of A Winter's Tale would put me in a Coheeries state of mind.
 
All y'all Nawthreners, please keep up the evocative tales of the winter.

Heading over to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in a little while. It's the absolute dead of winter, so smelling growing things will be quite beneficial. After that, we're heading over to a nearby Mexican restaurant for tacos and margarittas. Those will definitely stave off the winter chill.

The  woods  are  lovely,  dark  and  deep...
But  I  have  promises  to  keep
And  miles  to  go  before  I  sleep
And  miles  to  go  before  I  sleep.
 
Ironic  that  the  author  is  Robert  FROST.

 
Bert,

Funny you should mention him. This, luckily available to mere readers as well, popped up this morning:

http://www.elabs7.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=933041&mlid=499&siteid=20130&uid=088444ae16

I would like to respond with a "Snow Photo".
Is this possible?
Wendy

Hey Stoney:  soon it's gonna rain, this afternoon they say.  Maybe it will wash away the dirty snow.
So we can start again?
 
 
I was out taking pictures on the lake shore yesterday, I could hardly get one that was worth saving: the sky, the snow, and the lake were all one gray color - a hazy shade of winter?
 
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJeisxDEkCA

Wendy, just post your photos to your profiel and tell us that they are there. We'll all check them out. For example (and I do apologize for the shameless self-promotion), if you were to click my name, you would see many snow photos I have posted.

DZ:
 
To get our photos seen we have to self promote since the changes.
 
 

I Believe In Magic In a Young Girl's Heart ....... How the Rain's Gonna Free Her, Whenever it Starts ... And its Magic if The Rainfall is Groovy, It Makes You Feel Happy Like an Old Time Movie ... I'll Tell You 'bout The Magic and It'll Free Your Soul, Like Tryin' To Tell a Stranger 'bout Rock n Roll .......
 
And Fresh Snow to come after .......

Stoney:   Thanks  so  much!!!    I  live  &  breathe  NPR,   such  an  in-depth  source  of  information.     Speaking  of  poems  for  hard  times,   Stephen  Foster's  song  "Hard  times  come  again  no  more"  was  featured  on  the  Haiti  fundraiser  last  night.  Repeats  tonight  on  A &  E.   Put  tears  in  these  hardened  old  eyes.....

My son, born in October, experienced his first snowfall when he was a little over a year old.  It was the most amazing experience for him.  He touched it, he tasted it, he gazed at it in wonder......this was turly something special to a little fifteen month or so old baby......how sad that we lose that sense of wonder for things special as we grow older.
 
 

Andy~I too am an Octolber baby, and I do know that as a young child, the snow was such a wonderment,as it came up to my armpits....Mom would dress me in my 'snowsuit' and say "go out and have a good time".....to which I surely answered ..."good time?!? I can't move".....   .   .Makes a great mind picture, don't it?

PRAY FOR PAT AND HIS FAMILY.

STONEY's perfect prose never fails to move me, and today's I read with the usual delight -- and with some envy: I've written here of our rare snow, our warm ground too forgiving for it to stick; of how it makes us insane with joy, of how many years pass between snows; of how we "pizza-pan and cookie-sheet" down slopes, so I won't make you hear the details again.

Stoney's excellent imagery lets me feel snowcrunch beneath my feet though I went out with no coat today; see all he describes, revel in it. Thank you, Stoney.

And isn't the MANCHESTER GUARDIAN article great, folks?

 Stoney,

I was implying that if you didn't get my purposeful run on sentence...it reminded be of Cincinnati Chili, which after 10 years living here I still find it a bit foreign. The idea of putting chili on top of spaghetti noodles and the smothering it with shredded cheese makes my arteries harden. But then one of the two brands throws in a DASH of I think its nutmeg to really throw you off.

Now all that said, its been more than one that I've been to a non-Skyline branded Cincinnati and pigged out on the stuff...especially on a cold snowy day were a full stomach a hot fire and a blanket round out the round belly and a near post cincy-chili comatose sleepy mind.

Stoney wondering if your awake now to read my post.

CELTICGAL1:  We have another in the Village who is a Mini Devotee and Owner .......
 
Welcome Aboard, as this is my first time seeing your By Line .......

My favorite snowfalls are those all too rare ones that happen during a windless night and last for hours. The night sky becomes full of large, heavy white flakes that seem to defy, or at least temporarily bend the laws of gravity as they gracefully float and slowly dance about until they grow weary and settle down to the ground.  

If you happen to be driving during the early hours of this kind of snowfall, you are often forced to roll your car window down to feel the cold air rush in and snap you beck to wakefulness and fight off the hypnotic effect that takes place when your headlights illuminate the countless pure white reflective flakes that are coming right towards your windshield and then at the last instant, they either rise above it or simply melt upon contact.

When this happens, by the time I get home and stomp all of the snow off of my shoes, my mind and body have reached such a state of relaxation that all I wish to do, and I'm very content with doing this by now, is to sit in my favorite chair, read a book while keeping an ear to the all of the normal sounds of the outside world as they gradually become muffled under their fresh white blanket. When I do this, it is as if a gentle hand has stroked my brow and softly commanded me to ‘sleep now'. A command that my mind and body simply cannot, nor would they if they could; refuse. Sweet surrender.

When I lived in the city, the purity and chilled beauty of such a heavy and deep snowfall was very short-lived. It could only be enjoyed in the brief solitude afforded by a moonlit night and that would only last ‘till the snow plows were quickly pressed into service. By mid-morning the snow has already been deeply disturbed and begun to turn gray because of all the heavy car and pedestrian traffic.

But when I lived in an old farmhouse just a few miles from town, such a snowfall was simply magical in the how it changed my world.

The deep white blanket that fell to earth during the night remains intact, almost seamlessly as far as the eye can see. Other than the wind, I was surround by blanketed silence, everything had been muffled. If it was deep enough to render travel unlikely, I quickly surrendered to that thought and would be very pleased by it.

If it was still overcast in the morning, the pure white snow still managed to almost vibrate in contrast to the skyline.

But if the sun rose in a cloudless sky it was blindingly and uniformly beautiful beyond the power of words to describe.

Every flaw, scar or crack in the ground has been hidden. All of the pine trees are flocked, and all of the leafless trees now have all of their limbs frosted in white and are silhouetted against their white background.. Sagging roofs and broken fences have now been transformed into delicate sculptures; relics of some ancient civilization. The vast, vacant, harvested fields are now perfectly smooth, brilliantly whitened, and sprinkled with crystals that glitter in the sun.

The only disturbance to in the sculpted smoothness of the freshly fallen is very revealing. It is really a kind of magic that allows you to bear witness to the otherwise unseen and secret activities of all those nocturnal creatures that live in the country.

In the snow you can see the smooth curves and circles made by the rabbits that were bounding and leaping through the snow. There are the tiny footprints of the field mice and owls that inhabit the long ago deserted outbuildings and of course, the tiny hand shaped foot prints of the occasional opossum that has wandered aimlessly through the yard. Based on the volume and variety of the footprints found the first morning after the snowfall, I wondered how I could sleep through all the ruckus that must have gone on every night in that back yard.

If it wasn't windy, these footprints would accumulate and overlap each other until they were unrecognizable.

If it was windy, the whole landscape became like a three dimensional etch-a-sketch that would smooth itself out and constantly shift its shapes.

I live in a small city now. It is an old neighborhood with brick streets and a park less than a block away. As such I am still able to benefit from the silent beauty of freshly fallen snow. But then again there is nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of snowplows chattering down a brick street.. .. .. which is kinda nice in its own way.

Peace out, be warm, be well....

geeze - louise------- sorry for being so long-winded.  Yikes!

Hi Georgia. I quite agree about the article in the Manchester Guardian. Good to see you back. You were missed.

as for all the other kinds of snowfalls....... mostly hard work and good exercize.

PeterLake:  don't you apologize for one single word.  I can see everything you describe, and I'm convinced I've been standing right next to you, in each place you describe, it's so very evocative.
 
Thank you, thank you, oh what wonderful eyes you have and thank you yet again for sharing what you see.
 
 

In the mood for a little....war? the Cold War and the other kind?  Whatever your "pleasure,"  TCM disappoints (me) tonight with three good war movies, if you're into stories of death, destruction, and sounds of plane crashes and machine gun fire and so forth.  I'm not.  Did you guess? 
 
 
Tonight on TCM:
 
8:00 PM ET
Guns of Navarone, The (1961)

A team of Allied saboteurs fight their way behind enemy lines to destroy a pair of Nazi guns.
Cast:
Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker
Dir:
J. Lee Thompson C-157 mins, TV-PG
 
 
10:45 PM ET
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown Dir: John Sturges C-152 mins, TV-PG
 
 
1:30 AM ET
Where Eagles Dare (1969)
An Allied team sets out to free an American officer held by the Nazis in a mountaintop castle.
Cast: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark Dir: Brian G. Hutton C-155 mins, TV-14
 
 

P4 - Thanks for your very kind words.  Sorry about the movie selection.  There's always SToogapalooza on Saturday nights.  Is it as foggy by you as it is here?  I've got to drive to ST. Charles/Geneva so I'll see ya'll later.  Onward through the fog.

Visibility is 1/6 of a mile, they say.
 
Gee, you're driving way out there...be very careful.
 
I went out front and looked across the field and woods and it's pea soup -- definitely Hound of the Baskervilles-looking out there.
 
Be careful JPL, please.

Dense fog reported by this returning wanderer, the great farms that once adorned the countryside have left sub-divisions in their wake;like the stalks of last year's crops.   St.Charles,Elgin,Algonquin,East Dundee; all of the outgrowth along the lazy Fox River,which is moving very swiftly,fed by a days snowmelt and frozen grounds.   Farfel the dog did not want to cavort in the dense wet snow,and I did not want him in the mud and melting goose treats,then across my seat (his favorite thing to do with wet/muddy feet (ya think he really knows?)   The fog hides those little ticky tacky villages. If it were not for the constant traffic, one could almost imagine time standing still...

Very nice version of "Here's that Rainy Day" on the feeds. Thanks Mr. P. Me? TV-wise. You've got the catfights with the Ladies' figure Skaters at 9. And the Australian open heating up at 10 EST.  Then the countdown to the Jets and Colts.

PL- really nice words- transported me back to when I lived in Ohio. I remember snowfalls like this. So peaceful, so still, so lovely...
 
Thank you... 

I'm rebelling against my beloved TCM, with two DVD's, I know I'll fall asleep to the second one.
 
Jean Simmons, an actress for many decades, and a lovely lady, died yesterday, and in her fond memory I'm putting on "Guys and Dolls" - the musical, with Francis Albert S. and Marlon Brando, and Jean Simmons as the Salvation Army-Save Your Soul pretty missionary who's in the middle of a bet between Sinatra and Brando, part of which involves Brando taking her to Cuba for the night, and oh what a night it was, "Sister Sarah" decided she very much liked a drink he called dolce de leche.  I never in my life thought I'd like this movie, it's not the kind I usually like, but one day I took a walk on the wild side and watched it, and damn! it's amusing, clever, and cute and funny.  And Brando sings "Luck Be a Lady" and he dances too.  It's worth watching just for that. 
 
Great performances by so many of those "what's her/his name?" actors, it's just a joy to watch, and I can appreciate what a talent Jean Simmons was, and be grateful all over again, for the movies which keep her alive for us and generations to come.
 
I sound like a commercial for The National Film Archive or "Save the Celluloid" or whatever.
 
Well, I'm not.
But I am going to watch "Guys and Dolls" and to all of you denizens of our foggy Village, may luck be a lady (or gentleman) tonight.
 
G'night all.

PETER LAKE:  Bubba, I'm in there with PARK4 !!!  No apology needed, and this is a GREAT Piece !!!  GOOD ON YOU Bub !!!  And keep it coming .......  Good Writing is one of the reasons we're all here ....... There are just a whole Buncha Folks in this Village who have a way of painting with words ... No matter what the Topic ....... Its a Blessing Y'all !!! Lets Use It !!!
 
(are you reading this Olivia???)

PL... Im gonna bandage your fingers so ya cant type... I figure it's the only way I can catch up with you on the bling.  (seriously, you knocked it outta the ballpark ...mhm huh)

Road Yacht -- it sure does -- exactly how I've been feeling in this really cold snap -- what I used to call, when the kids were young, the stiff sleeve season --- they just couldn't move enought to get to a tissue :)

I meant enough -- e-n-o-u-g-h :)  but you knew that didn't you?

Andy~that inspired a song...   ...   ...Greensleeves   ...  

If you google that, you'll find it is several hundred years old...goes to show that kids in snowsuits have been suffering for centuries...

I'm so very grateful that our paths continue cross.  Its a privelge to be amongst ya'll.                     Peace out, be well and be happy - JPL

 
All right, Mr. Peter Lake, it is clear that you have been reading phrases before taking them out of the lathe and... hold on a sec, there's a message coming in...

Oh, it IS permitted even encouraged? I wish Ida knew. 

 
Julia Masi,

"The snow in that photograph is so white."

It is embarrassing to admit that I thought it was a sneeze.

 
Paul Murphy,

"Stoney wondering if your awake now to read my post."

Yes, Thank you.

CORRECTION:
 
TCM is altering it's name to "The Bob" as it is widely known, nationwide.

YES, WHERE'S OLIVIA?!?!?! ('scuse me...hadda yell out thesepia train window)

Luddite:  Robert Osborne is such an elegant, knowledgeable, genial host -- he's as fine a representative of that excellent channel as anyone I can imagine. 
 
But as much as I like "Bob," it will always be Turner Classic Movies to me, because I just love that word, "classic," and all that it promises.
 
If it weren't for this one station, I'd have no earthly use for television at all -- well, Masterpiece Theater, when I can get it -- but really, TCM is it.  If it goes off the air, my televisions go out the door.