More snow!

This image is from last night when the snow began. It was supposed to be a dusting but we got about 5 inches overnight. Normally, we New Englanders would scoff at a mere 5 inches, but in this year without snow, it was an Event!

There are many things I like about snow. I like the symbolism inherent in the individuality of each snowflake, and how such a fragile, delicate thing, when joined by a billion of it's kind, can cause huge accidents, screw up airline travel, bury towns, and bring joy to school aged children everywhere.
I love the luminosity of snow. It's never truly dark out just after snowfall. The air has a pearlescent sheen, the ground and tree branches which just disappear into the dark of a winter night are transformed into delicate lacework.
I like that peculiar, particular smell of new snow. Nothing else smells just like that.
I love the silence. Before the plows start trundling by with their thunder and diesel humming, sparking up the roadsides, before most people work up the energy to dust off their vehicles, I like to go out and just listen. To nothing. Everything is muffled, calm, peaceful.

Even this morning, when I went out to look at the predawn beauty, the song of the cardinal and his mate were quieter, reverential. This world is so filled with beauty! You wouldn't think it to watch the 6 p.m. news, and I know there are bad things happening everywhere, but there are good things too, and snowbeauty is one of the good things.

Once the sun came up, and the blue stretched from horizon to horizon, people got on about their days, the birds flew about more purposefully (feed the belly, build the nests!) I knew I could get just a few more shots in before the heat and wind of the day stripped the last of the snow from the trees. This is the best of the lot, my beautiful birch tree.