Snow…finally (a wee bit)

My cousin in France told me that it had snowed there last week. I could imagine Paris in the snow, as in the painting below –

Notre Dame de Paris in Snow, Simon Tavik, Czech -1877-1942

My childhood friend who now lives near Toledo, Spain, sent me a picture of her patio under the snow. Snow in Spain! What happened to sunny Spain?



Then last Thursday night, 7 January, our weatherman predicted snow that evening for the metro Atlanta area prompting schools to dismiss children early. Indeed we saw some snow coming down before going to bed. The next morning I had a euphoric moment – I might finally see some snow outdoors. As I was finding warm clothes, hat, scarf, gloves I could imagine tons of snow covering everything in the landscape as in the Russian painting below –

Painting by Vladimir Krylov, Russian, born in 1942

But then once outside I saw the snow was just a light blanket – my daughters’ old toy horse

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

and the wood pile were barely covered.



I decided to go down to our neighbor’s lake and take a few pictures.

Click to enlarge picture

Some wild ducks were trying to find a bit of grass to eat and a little puddle of water for a swim – not an easy task in the frozen lake.


I walked back to our yard. Everything was still. There was no noise, only the creak of my shoes on the frozen grass.



Close to noon I walked back outside toward the road. It was quite cold, about 24 degree F ( -4.5 C) - which is very cold for Georgia. No cars were driving by. I heard an engine though and saw a truck driving backward. It was backing down the road, with workers feverishly throwing gravel on sleek spots. The truck drove past me and kept backing up toward the creek.



I waved to them, but they never even looked up – the poor crew was throwing gravel as fast as they could. It reminded me of a poem I just read on the Internet:

There are no Snowplows in Atlanta

It was cold, it IS cold
Everything froze.
The engines on the trains froze.
The mail at the post-office froze right in the trucks
and melted illegibly.
The tunnel to France froze
and there are no snowplows in Atlanta. -by butterflyz r free

Since they were backing up towards the creek my husband and I decided to drive down there to take a look. We had not gone even a quarter of a mile when we saw an empty Cobb County Police car stopped with its blue light flashing. We stopped.



I walked pass the empty vehicle to see what was the matter. The Cobb County officer was coming back and told me not to go any further as it was not safe on the road with the icy spots. I said I would be careful and kept walking. In the ditch, ahead, was a police car with its driver waiting for the wrecker to dig him out. The ditch is quite deep there.

We heard the policeman had to stand 2 hours by his car waiting for the crew in a gravel truck to clear the icy spots on the road – there are no snowplows in Cobb County either. The police car in the ditch was from the city of Dunwoody, which is in DeKalb county, not Cobb. That’s curious…

Since we could not pass the wrecker to drive to the creek we turned around and went looking for lunch somewhere (the plumber had not shown up to fix our kitchen because of the snow.) We drove to “Louise” a small breakfast and lunch restaurant close to Kennesaw Battlefield Park.


We almost did not stop as there were no cars in the parking lot but it was open. We entered and saw no other patrons – none by the fire or the cash register or having lunch.



We sat and checked the menu on the wall.



My husband decided to have the chicken liver with creamed potatoes, broccoli casserole and corn bread. I chose the salmon patties with spinach casserole, lima beans, and corn bread. As you can see these luncheon plates cost $5.95 each (which is about 4 Euros, or 3 pounds 66.) It’s specializes in standard southern food.



As we finished our meal one more patron showed up – the mailman. I took a picture of a photograph hanging on the wall. It was of this restaurant in the 60's when it was called “The Old Confederate Trading Post” and on a snowy day. If you look on the left hand side of the photo, just inside the frame, you can see the reflection of the sitting mailman.



We then drove around the corner to Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. It was closed. Everything closes in Georgia when snow appears. It was still in the low 20's so I hurried to take a few shots to remember the park under the snow (even though some people up north would not call this “real” snow.)

(Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Today the temperature is almost back to normal, it is 52 F (11 C) right now. The snow is about all gone.

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On a more serious side – please support the efforts of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for their work in Haiti. They have already treated more than a 1,500 people since Tuesday’s terrible earthquake. We need to help them provide more assistance to the survivors, many with serious injuries. Please click on the link here – and you can give with a credit card, even a very small amount.