Let It Snow

Now that we've had our Christmas Tree Lighting and Christmas Parade, the next step into winter seems to be right around the corner:   the first snow.  The forecast on the local radio station indicates only a slim chance of "wintry mix" tonight and tomorrow.

But that was enough to have everyone talking about it, as they always do in Highlands - at the Post Office, at Reeves Hardware,  that was the main topic.  "I hear we might be getting three inches!" one snow-lover smiled.  We always like to exaggerate the depth of that very first snow.

WLOS-TV, which I watch every morning on my computer, was a little more sure about snow developing, and in some robust amount.  Meteorologist Jason Boyer even pulled up the TV station's patented "Flake-O-Meter:"

The blue hand was pointing toward "Accumulation for Many" this morning, which is No. Two out of Four on the Flake-O-Meter scale.  But we're ready for No. Four!

Ia there anything more magical than running in the snow?  The hush, the metallic fragrance in the air, the branches bending down gracefully under the gentle accumulation, like a soft blanket thrown lightly over a snug world.  It is a transformation of the everyday into the miraculous, as Hasui and other Japanese artists understood so well.  Absolutely beautiful.

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."