SO MUCH snow

After several days of light powdery snow– an inch here, a half-inch there– today the skies absolutely unleashed the snow. Over 24 hours we gained around two feet of powder. It simply buried everything. Here’s our picnic table, out in the courtyard:

I put on my boots, snow pants, and a heavy coat and tromped around in the snow for a while snapping pictures. Every tree branch had a thick stack of flakes on it. The trees were beautiful.

After the deluge stopped, the skies cleared and the sun came out for a while. It was still bitterly cold, but there was a wonderful silence to it all. The snow absorbed all the sound, and no one was out so even the highway far below didn’t have the usual rumble of an occasional truck.

We’d been working hard to keep our driveway clear over the past couple of weeks, but all our work was undone beneath two feet of snow. Since we didn’t have plans to go anywhere, we told the plow guy to come at his leisure. In the meantime, we figured we’d test our sleds.

Unfortunately the powder was so deep that we couldn’t really get up much speed. We went over our own sled tracks a few times, packing down the snow a bit, but it was still sort of a slow-motion kiddie ride. That was a bit disappointing, although it was wonderful to spend an hour or two in this frigid snowy wonderland.