Snowbound at the Beach

This morning I am posting pictures of snow, a sight I have never before seen here at the beach.  We both awoke during the night and saw a dusting on the lawn between here and the pool.  By morning's light, we could see about an inch - such a strange sight to see stretching out before us, clinging to the dune vegetation and the rough triangular bark of the palm trees, whiter than the beach sand!

I took a few tentative steps, thinking I might be able to take some more pictures from the walkway, but I discovered that there was a solid sheet of ice under the snow; I could barely stand up.

Fortunately, Martha had heard the forecast yesterday while she was out shopping, and had stopped at Friendly Market and at Blue Ocean Market, our two go-to places in Morehead City, to "stock up."  The seafood is as fresh as I have ever seen in Blue Ocean, and the owners actually catch most of it themselves.  When we were in there last week buying scallops, a young man was putting out trigger fish in the icy bins.  "That looks like it's still moving!" I said.  "A little," he admitted.

So we are not going anywhere today.  We are well provisioned with more scallops, lobster bisque from Friendly Market, and good books to read.

“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of Storm.” 
 - Emerson

Except for that radiant fireplace, we have all that we need.