Winter Wonderland

People who live where it snows a lot in winter don't understand how snowfall could be exciting to an area that only sees it rarely. Maybe if our snows lasted longer, it'd be less impressive when those big white flakes start to fall, when a soft silence falls over the land, but as it is, I always smile as I see it turning white and wonder how long it will last.

The cats head out the door and look around with horror. If they walk in it, each step involves shaking their paws. I used to grab my boots, heaviest coat, gloves and head out to make snowmen (or women) but now it's my camera I take outside to see if I can capture any of the beauty.

For a short time, with a good snowfall, it's as though the existing world is recreated. For however long it lasts, before it starts to melt, imperfections are covered up, mud disappears. The world is pristine, white and new.

The years when we lost power, I was less pleased with this transformation-- although it's not too bad to use woodstove, kerosene lamps, and candles for a few days.

The worst problem when power goes out comes because our water source is a well which uses a pump. With no power, no water means no flushing. That can be inconvenient to say the least and in a long outage has led to heading down to the creek with buckets. That is really no fun.

Since the year we bought the little power generator, we have not had any extensive power outages. It might be the equivalent of washing your car to get it to rain.

By afternoon, the snow was mostly gone and the world had returned to normal-- which at this time of year is mostly raindrops, puddles, and mud.

(The picture of me was self-timed, shot from a conveniently placed bale of hay where I had to get back to the fence before the camera clicked. The heron was photographed by my husband from the road heading into town. All can be enlarged twice by clicking on them.)