Wait for it....wait for it....

It creeps ever so slowly down the mountainsides toward the Valley. The nights now are clear and cold. 24 degrees this morning. Cold enough for my fingers and toes to feel chilled. Clear nights mean colder air but no snow. I want cloudy and cold with the air full of moisture. If I have to scrape something off my windshield before driving to work, I prefer snow rather than the thick Jack Frost ice in patterns that take forever to scrape away. Snow is much easier to handle than ice. So in the meantime I am waiting for it, waiting for it…

I Know it is on the Way!

It is only a matter of moments, hours, or days until FIRST SNOW. The leaves are gone from the trees outside my window. I've needed to scrape thick frost from my windshield and I'm now driving to work in the dark while wearing gloves.

I am headed into my 12th winter in Alaska. What I find about myself is that even after my previous 11 winters, I'm still tickled at the prospect of First Snow.

Any day now as the snow line creeps lower and lower. Any day now as the temps drop further below freezing each night. Any day now I will be exclaiming "It's snowing!!!!" as if I were a little girl and her first delight at the wonderment of SNOW.

Winter on the Way

The first day we have snow that sticks another winter blog season will begin.

Six Years Later...

. . . and I'm back with an old post edited for today:

SNOW !!!

“How full of genius is the air in which these are generated! I should hardly admire them more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat.” ---H.D. Thoreau

As awe struck by snow as Thoreau, so I find myself amazed at the tiny gems. I truly love the snow and am mesmerized by it whenever I allow myself the opportunity. Even after these many, many, many months of dark and cold I welcome the snow. Throughout today we have been blessed with stellar dendrites, a rarity here in Wasilla. Usually, in the winter, the arctic air from the north is too dry for them to form. It’s only in the late winter or early spring that our air is tempered by the moisture from the gulf. That is when the snow crystals grow to six-sided star-like flakes…the traditional kindergarten fold-and-cut snowflake, each one different from all the others. While driving during these stellar dendrite events I’m at risk, as is everyone else who ventures outdoors and into my path. It is impossible for me to focus on the road and traffic ahead while I’m watching these flakes skitter off my windshield. I should call in to work, not sick, but stunningly awed by nature! Hmmmmm….that would be my own personal “Snow Day!” For now, I must temper my enthusiasm and quiet my mantra of “more snow, MORE SNOW, MORE SNOW !!! I am aggravating most everyone around me, especially gardeners and those with long driveways to shovel, by my wish for year-round winter!