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Posts Tagged ‘Snow’

Vignette

Posted in Eternal moments, Nature, Reflections on the everyday, tagged , on February 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Snowfall overnight.  Only the streetlamps are bright, cloudy with a few stars.

Walking in tire tracks, I turn the corner on an untrammeled snowy road.  Four inches of unbroken snow blankets door to door and down the street.  No tire tracks, human, or animal prints.

Walking down the middle of the street, the snow glistens. The impossibly unplanned sparkles that dazzle even in low light.  At street end, the tracks of a car leaving for work breaks the spell.

Behind me, a solitary braid of footprints leads from where I once was. A lifetime in a glance.

Footprints made of water last no longer than those held by tidal sand—a presence momentarily registered on an endlessly changing canvas.

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The Snow Blankets

Posted in Eternal moments, Nature, Reflections on the everyday, time, weather, tagged , , , on January 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Glistening clouds of snow blanket the ground, the roof, the roads.

You may know these mornings.  Quiet, a dog barking in the distance, conifers silhouette a deep blue sky brightening before an orange-stroked sunrise.

Winter storms pass, leaving moments of unsullied stillness. Beneath the blanket and cold, some things sleep, some perish, some wait – much like memory. Other than the energy of our blood and bones we are only memory. Some memories finally pass, others will only pass when we do.

The sun will soon dazzle the landscape with its untrammeled brilliance, blinding thought to anything but glory. Then the blankets will fray to fluid and reveal again what lies there. 

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Crossing Paths

Posted in Reflections on the everyday, weather, tagged , , on December 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

First snow of the season, hugging tree, street, and sidewalk.

Shuffling westward, ankle deep, the sidewalk snow was pristine.  Cars and trucks lumbered by inches away, but the blemish-free snow underfoot made for undiscovered country in the most common of places.

Several blocks on, I came upon an east-going traveler.  Bundled more expertly than me against the temps and terrain, she walked the same print-dash-print-dash as me, a Morse code trail heading the opposite direction.

When we crossed paths, my cheery greeting was met with a smile.  Thereafter I did something I usually only think about–I walked in the footsteps of someone else.

The print-dash-print was longer than mine.  Walking in her tracks, already forged, made for easier walking.  But in the exchange, the unbroken potential had disappeared.  The snow, both ridged and flattened, was defined, in a glance it was, rather than what it could be.

Walking forward I unwound her past, reliving steps already in her memory–just as she was likely inhabiting mine.

I turned off on a side street. Our paths diverged. My eyes, not my feet, traced the path of her westward past. A forecast for incoming waves of snow will clear the canvas for the next travelers coming this way.

 

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Winter Garden

Posted in Nature, The Garden, tagged , on January 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

A blanket lies over the garden, crusty white.

What remains standing, in glorious decline, is known as the winter garden. But I know better.

Beneath the snow, in the ground, microbe and mulch, root and rot, the crowns of spring sleep.

Protected from upheaval, they shelter. Gathering, to push forth when light lingers longer.

Real strength rests below, embroidered with the deceit of decay above.  Winter garden.

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Beachcomber

Posted in Reflections on the everyday, tagged , , on December 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Snow finally showed.  Wet and heavy, courtesy of El Nino somewhere in the equatorial Pacific.

On Walkabout, the sidewalk was somewhere under the tide.  Snow plows hurled slush upon the compacted snow.  A frothy wave permanently rested on its beach.

Like any beachcomber, I left only footprints to mark my passage.  Soon they will melt too.

 

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Traction

Posted in Nature, Reflections on the everyday, tagged , on January 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Snowy day on Walkabout.

Snow plows push through, leaving streets that are sheets of ice. Easier for cars, harder for pedestrians.

Walking the route twice this time, I find snowfall eased the slick.  Erased the bald ice and laid down enough texture to get a foothold.

Good intention sometimes makes things tough.  Traction. Given the chance, Nature finds ways to get you through.

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Night Air

Posted in Nature, Psycho-Bubbles, tagged , , , , on November 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Eternity is out tonight, crowding empty streets.

Time’s arrow, the young turn elderly, generations blend, age, pass.

Unnoticed except by some in the larger moments.

Perhaps it is the snowflakes.  Countless souls against the night sky.

Something in the air, eternity is out tonight.

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Footprints

Posted in Nature, Psycho-Bubbles, Reflections on the everyday, tagged , , on January 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Returning from Walkabout in untrammeled snow.  Turning, I saw my footprints.  Medium size, not uncommon.

Sand, snow or earth, footprints do not last long.  A mark, a measure of where we have been, a pace held and gone.

Some like to leave their mark, or wish they made a bigger mark.  Footprints wear away.  It is the thing that cannot be seen, memories of the walk, that persist.

Footprints do not last, I do not mind.

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To the ages

Posted in Psycho-Bubbles, Reflections on the everyday, tagged , , on December 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Anonymous souls are out tonight, on the road, in stores, in their homes.  Gather tradition close, loved ones closer, the depth in this night draws near.

If presents be had, they are opened, old wounds fare the same.  For those who observe Christmas, or did at one time, this is a night when years pass by in the air.  They lightly brush the face just enough to be noticed before moving slowly on.

Where I am, there is snow, quiet, icy in places, fresh in others.  Life is like that.

Eternity is an effective leveler, anonymous souls are out tonight.

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Blizzard

Posted in Nature, Reflections on the everyday, tagged , on December 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A distance drive on a stormy day.  Horizontal snow blows across the road from the right, changing direction midstream.  Roadway breathes with snaking, vaporous snow, flowing before my car like a tide.  Mesmerizing.

Wind hits from the left, the entire works blows into opaque cloud as an oncoming semi passes within feet.  Zero visibility.

Flat light, socked in storm, taillights obscured by snow.  Drift after drift, snow headed to earth. No where to go but forward–or off the road.

On a sunny day, driving this road is thoughtless.  Wild but still beautiful, this side of Nature commands full attention.

Home again, garage door closing slowly shuts out the storm.  Glad to be inside looking out.

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