It was snowing

Living in the desert, there is one certainty-- nothing is certain. Are we in a drought? Is the weather changing or is this how it's always been-- shifting sands, so to speak. 

My experience with desert life began in 1965 and then off and on since then, where we vacationed there with our young children; and finally, in 1999, bought a small home centered on a little over an acre of desert. We didn't live there year round given we still had the livestock and property in Oregon to manage, a life to live up there, but also a place in our hearts in the Southwest. 

We still divide our time between Arizona and Oregon with no clear idea of what will end up for us in our old age... Uh wait, we are in old age, both of us turn 80 later this year. It's not that we don't recognize we are old, it's just we love two places equally but can't keep going between them forever... but we can for now.

That brief history was to establish how often we have been in the desert and seen snow falling. It's not a common thing, but it happens probably more than some imagine. Never as much though, for us, as we saw this week when the snow fell enough to turn our world here white. It's kind of thrilling to get snow when it's rare-- and when we know it won't last long. 

We had heard the predictions. Wednesday night, around 10pm, we saw it was lightly covering the ground. When we got up at 4am, it was coating shrubs and ground. Ranch Boss went out and got a few photos as we weren't sure how much more would come.

When it got light, we saw more than there had been. 3" to be approximate, and it coated everything with a glistening coat of fluffy snow. The branches on trees were bent over. As far as we could see, our world was white. More photos were taken, and now I am going to try to share some to show the details and the landscape. 

Not easy deciding which as to see the cacti with snowy caps is definitely unique. For a while, the world was light and dark. Then the sun returned to turn the sky blue as the clouds began to depart. By around 1pm on Thursday, most of the snow was gone on our property and the plants had regained their shape-- snow was only to be remembered and in photos.