February 10: Melt

[neverspent]

It will be hard for folks in the great white North who get twice this amount in one storm, but with 14" total, this is the 7th snowiest winter ever recorded in my city. Today, there was a lot of melting. The evergreen tree that started the day looking like Winter Wonderland ended it with clumps of mush sliding off and plopping on the ground. On the roads, melt created rivers of icy clear water and a really messy gray slush that sprayed on to me when cars passed. However, I don't know how this works, but the undisturbed areas of snow were covered with the most sparkliest snow ever. Flat crystals of snow almost like sequins, or fish scales. The snow underneath was soft and powdery. I love walking through it. It feels like if you fell straight back, it would catch you like feathers.

Comments

[shinsetsu]

The bottom pic is really pretty and serene. For some reason, the top pic made me think that's what the Easter Island statues would look like if they fell backwards onto the ground and got covered up with snow. And no, I'm not 'on' anything. haha

[neverspent]

I love that image of the statues, and I can totally see what you mean!

[shinsetsu]

Here is a photo my friend gave me of the trees all iced over in Russia. I thought you might like it. I made it smaller, but it is still 800px, so I will just give you the link:

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1998/800k.jpg

[neverspent]

Oh my, gorgeous! It really almost doesn't look real. So magical. :)

[kopernik]

I consider 14" to be PLENTY of snow. We actually didn't get that much total in January (December was another matter.) The only difference is that here it tends to not melt and becomes just another layer that may very well be with us for a few months, getting dirty and crusty until the next layer comes, until spring or maybe faux spring rolls around.

[neverspent]

When some places are getting over 20 inches at a time, 14 for a whole season sounds like not much1 It definitely doesn't seem like too much when it comes a couple of inches at a time and melts within two days! I'm sure it's much more present with you mentally when it sticks around so long, physically.