Snow!

It started early, before 8:00 am this Sunday morning, while we were still in bed and enjoying the late start to the day (hey, when the old man usually gets up ay 4:30am, 8 is late!). A fine dust was shaking from the clouds, a sure sign that this snow would be here a while. Other signs: "rain (or snow) before 7 ends by eleven" but this one started later. "Red sky at morning" held true; when I got up at 7 to look outside, the dawn was definitely pink.

We watched the snow fall and pile up for a while, then got up and made breakfast, got the fires stoked up and watched the snow some more. This is the first real snowfall this year, way overdue. With fires going well, the animals fed and eggs gathered, there wasn't much else to do but watch it snow.

Thereis something completely relaxing about watching snow. Everyday sights become new again, the dogs run and roll in the whiteness, everything is clean, unfamiliar. Bushes are full and round, the walks are soft and curving, the distant mountains are smooth and mysterious in the haze of falling snow.

It was a good day to stay inside, so of course we didn't. By one o'clock we decided to take a trip to town, and the old 4-wheel drive carried us over snowy, icy roads. Staying home is nice, but so is traveling about to see what people are up to in the snow. They were busy! Mark was out feeding horses, kids were building snowmen, several people had managed to slide into ditches, and Derek and friends were cooking out, weather be damned.

Home again, we reloaded stove and fireplace, cooked dinner, and watched dusk settle blue on the hills. It was a relief to have the first snow behind us, and to know that nothing had changed much after all--people still did the same things they did before when it snowed, the world still looked beautiful for the white coating, and although older, we still enjoyed it all as much as we ever did.

Snowman

Children roll a snowball
enormous
up a hill
just to roll it down again
and watch
as it disintegrates
against their father's truck

Then they start again
roll another one
bigger
to stand in place
a tribute
for anyone passing to see

They can build
They can create
They can control
They are the masters
of snowmen
they will never complete


Winter on Elk Fork

Snow on water
the fishermen's boat
cuts a dark path
seeking fish
or peace
on a white January day


Bedded Down

Listen
a woodpecker drums
then stops
a tree looses its burden
of snow
in a rush of white noise
then quiet as
Winter blankets all
in a drift of silence