January 9: Snow!

The first snow fell today! Well, I don't think any of it just fell—it was blowing. It started as sleet which made a loud rushing noise as the millions of little ice pellets hit the roof and ground and leaves. The sleet started to pile up and drift in the wind, and then it changed to snow, which kept blowing and piling up for a few hours. If it hadn't been for the wind it would have been very quiet. As it was, other sounds were muffled, like the metallic rattle of the wire latch on the aluminum pasture gate.

I love the way the snow bumps up the contrast of everything. You can see patterns and shapes you never noticed before: the vines growing up a tree, the curves of gnarled branches. I want to be outside as much as possible, because around here we just knowthat our first snow of the season could always be the only snow of the season.





In other snow news, my dad took pity and let the farm cat in the house for the night. :) Here she is before that.

January 10: Spellbound

Spellbound
~ Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing dear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.