Wishing for snow

The picture above is not what we would see walking outside today (no snow yet) and it is 60 degrees F (15.5 C.) This was a picture I took one day last year in January. We were so surprised to see snow covering our garden that morning. I hurried outside and took some pictures because it was not very cold and it would soon melt.

Also last January I took the following series of snow pictures - this was our back yard then; you can even get a glimpse of our neighbors’ lake in the background -

Click on image to enlarge it.

and part of our barn



one of the bird feeders


looking toward the front of the house


and the side of the house



then we took our cat Cody so he could smell the snow – he was terrified.



A few hours later the sun was peeking out and the snow was already melting. So sad – in the Deep South snow is not a frequent visitor.



Growing up I do not remember this much snow in Paris either – there would be some snow for a couple of days, but it would not last too long. I do not have pictures from that time but found the one below (free photo courtesy of Life.)



My mother’s friend, who was a furrier, gave her some rabbit fur remnants. So mum made me a fur cape, a fur hat and a fur “manchon” for my hands. I don’t know what you call this in English but you can see what it looks like in the painting below. It is called “Dame au Manchon” and was painted in 1880 by Berthe Morisot, French painter (1841-1895.) I loved my cape and was always wishing for snow, or at least some cold weather, so I could wear it.



Mother made another cape, years later, for my daughter. Here is a picture of Céline in her white fur cape.



When I moved to San Francisco, there was not much snow in winter either. My boyfriend lived in Montana and his family invited me there for my first Christmas in the USA. When the plane approached Great Falls it circled above the city but everything looked white from the sky. When the aircraft started the descent we could then see the great city trees covered with snow and decorated with vibrant lights. This was fairyland to me.



But that was many winters ago. Now in Georgia – I am wishing for snow – one or two days would be good so we can go out – listen to all the muffled sounds and look at everything turned clean and white.

Trees in a Winter Landscape, Aleksander A. Borisov (1815-1892)

Here is a stanza from the poem “Winter’s Spring”

I love the snow, the crumpling snow

That hangs on everything,
It covers everything below
Like white dove's brooding wing,
A landscape to the aching sight,
A vast expanse of dazzling light.
- John Clare, English Poet (1793-1864)

La Charrette, route sous la neige à Honfleur - 1867, Claude Monet

And for my French speaking blogging friends, here is the last stanza from the poem “La Neige”

Qu'il est doux, qu'il est doux d'écouter des histoires,

Des histoires du temps passé,
Quand les branches d'arbres sont noires,
Quand la neige est épaisse et charge un sol glacé !
- Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863)

And for my Jewish blogging friends I’d like to wish them a Happy Chanukah.