Snow

Today's substantial snowfall here came as something of a surprise, despite the forecasts! We had several inches, and, although it won't stay around too long, it's still here, or some of it, tonight, and winter is back with us for what I hope will only be a brief visit.

Snow turns the world around into a sort of dreamscape, I always feel. That's partly because it has its own intrinsic beauty, creating a carpet of white to obscure the normal imperfections of the world and even change the nature and intensity of the light. But at the same time there is the way in which - as one goes out in it and tries to get on with the normal chores of life - a world coated with snow is reality subtly distorted so that it's the same place and yet somehow not the same place, all at once.

Well, today in fact, once I was halfway down the hill into town, I found I was below the snowline and all there was down there was sleet, with nothing much if anything sticking. So, once I'd made it across the first quarter mile or so, my working day was more or less unaffected. It was strange to find the snow (and the dreamscape) still in place here when I got back home!