Snowflakes

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

Silent, and soft, and slow

Descends the snow.



even as our cloudy fancies take

Suddenly shape in some divine expression,

Even as the troubled heart doth make

In the white countenance confession,

The troubled sky reveals

The grief it feels.



This is the poem of the air,

Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

this is the secret of despair,

Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,

now whispered and revealed

to wood and field.



by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire

"O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire,
What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn
Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn
Of death! Far sooner in midsummer tire
The streams than under ice. June could not hire
Her roses to forego the strength they learn
In sleeping on thy breast."
- Helen Hunt Jackson, A Calendar of Sonnets: January


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Photo by Mary Womack Murdock © 2012

First Flowers

Galanthus (Snowdrop; Greek gála "milk", ánthos "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous plants in the Amaryllis family. Most flower in winter, before the vernal equinox (21 March in the Northern Hemisphere), but certain species flower in early spring and late autumn.

.


Finally I have a few snowdrops blooming. It has been such a cold early spring we still have big patches of snow in the yard. As the "snow" in their name suggests, snowdrops are among the earliest bloomers in the yard. Depending on your region, they will bloom in February or March. Snowdrops may not even wait for the snow to melt before emerging from their winter sleep, instead pushing right up through the snow -- a delightful sight for the winter-weary!

April Snow In Kansas

I thank the April snow,
Whose magic sent from wood
And field a hungry brood
To be my friends a blessed day or so;___

Hedge sparrows, yellow-billed,
Black-capped, the cardinal
Of joyous heart, and all
The mouse-breast juncos. To my board crumb-filled

With the snow they came, and now
As softly as snow thaws
They are gone, their little claws
Clasping hedge twigs again or woodland bough.

by William Savage Johnson

4-5 inches of wet snow now on the ground

Spring Snow poem

by Linda Gregerson

A kind of counter-
blossoming, diversionary,

doomed, and like
the needle with its drop

of blood a little
too transparently in

love with doom, takes
issue with the season: Not

(the serviceberry bright
with explanation) not

(the redbud unspooling
its silks) I know I've read

the book but not (the lilac,
the larch) quite yet, I still

have one more card to
play. Behold

a six-hour wonder: six
new inches bedecking the

railing, the bench, the top
of the circular table like

a risen cake. The saplings
made (who little thought

what beauty weighs) to bow
before their elders.

The moment bears more
than the usual signs of its own

demise, but isn't that
the bravery? Built

on nothing but the self-
same knots of air

and ice. Already
the lip of it riddled

with flaws, a sort
of vascular lesion that

betokens—what? betokens
the gathering return

to elementals. (She
was frightened

for a minute, who had
planned to be so calm.)

A dripline scoring
the edge of the walk.

The cotton batting blown
against the screen begun

to pill and molt. (Who
clothed them out of

mercy in the skins
of beasts.) And even

as the last of the
lightness continues

to fall, the seepage
underneath has gained

momentum. (So that
there must have been a

death before
the death we call the

first or what became
of them, the ones

whose skins were taken.)
Now the more-

of-casting-backward-than-of-
forward part, which must

have happened while I wasn't
looking or was looking

at the skinning knives. I think
I'll call this mercy too.




http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178752

Spring Snow

Spring Snow, March 22, 2011

Hay delivery at Thistledown Croft

Some friends brought a load of hay yesterday and as you can see we still have a couple inches of snow everywhere.

Farm Road in New Snow

A March Snow

Let the old snow be covered with the new:
The trampled snow, so soiled, and stained, and sodden.
Let it be hidden wholly from our view
By pure white flakes, all trackless and untrodden.
When Winter dies, low at the sweet Spring's feet
Let him be mantled in a clean, white sheet.

Let the old life be covered by the new:
The old past life so full of sad mistakes,
Let it be wholly hidden from the view
By deeds as white and silent as snow-flakes.

Ere this earth life melts in the eternal Spring
Let the white mantle of repentance fling
Soft drapery about it, fold on fold,
Even as the new snow covers up the old.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox



The snow banks are still here but the actual snow on the ground where it fell in most places is only a few inches deep. The plowed piles are iced and heavy and it will take rain or some serious sun to melt them away. The days are longer now and when you step outside the sound of the birds is amazing. They know spring is on its way. We picked up a little new snow Sat. night and Sunday morning. That at least covered the mud!

"March Snow"

"March Snow"

There is something hopeful about March,
something benevolent about the light,

and yet wherever I look snow
has fallen or is about to fall, and the cold

is so unexpected, so harsh,
that even the spider lily blooming

on the windowsill seems no more
than another promise, soon to be broken.

It is like a lover who speaks
the passionate language of fidelity, but

when you look for him, there he is
in the arms of winter.

-- Linda Pastan

Snowing once more

We have picked up about 12 new inches since last night.



After a day of mild weather its snowing again like crazy

Taken this morning 2/21/11

Local Snowfall for this winter

The county seat of Mayville, NY's total snowfall as of 2/14/11 is 174 Inches. Sherman, New York's total 226 inches.

Sheena and company Feb 7, 2001

In winter's cold and sparkling snow

,


In winter's cold and sparkling snow,
The garden in my mind does grow.
I look outside to blinding white,
And see my tulips blooming bright.
And over there a sweet carnation,
Softly scents my imagination.

On this cold and freezing day,
The Russian sage does gently sway,
And miniature roses perfume the air,
I can see them blooming there.
Though days are short, my vision's clear.
And through the snow, the buds appear.

In my mind, clematis climbs,
And morning glories do entwine.
Woodland phlox and scarlet pinks,
Replace the frost, if I just blink.
My inner eye sees past the snow.
And in my mind, my garden grows.






Cheryl Magic-Lady, Winter Garden

Chautauqua County land of Lake Snows

I live in Chautauqua County, in the southwestern corner of New York State.It is located along the New York-Pennsylvania border, is the westernmost of New York's counties. Chautauqua Lake is located in the center of the county, and Lake Erie is its northern border.

Part of the Eastern Continental Divide runs through Chautauqua County. The area that drains into the Conewango Creek (including Chautauqua Lake) eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico; the rest of the county's watershed empties into Lake Erie and out into the North Atlantic Ocean. This divide, known as the Chautauqua Ridge, can be used to mark the border between the Southern Tier and the Niagara Frontier. It is also a significant dividing point in the county's geopolitics, with the "North County" being centered around Dunkirk and the "South County" centered around Jamestown.

The snow we are getting right now is Lake effect snow. When cold air moves across Lake Erie it picks up moisture from the warm lake which has not yet frozen and then dumps it as snow as it flows over the land and up over Chautauqua Ridge often hammer us here in Stedman on the hilltop with lots of snow like its doing this week.

I think we have about three feet now.

I think we have about three feet of snow now and its still coming....

The Snow-Storm

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The steed and traveler stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.


Come see the north wind's masonry
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structure, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nora in the snow

Livestock being frozen to death in their thousands

As heavy snow brought more chaos to Scotland yesterday, upland sheep farmers in particular feared that their flocks could be killed as a result of the longest cold spell to hit Scotland's agricultural industry for decades.

The prolonged Arctic blast is now the worst seen in Scotland since 1963, according to First Minister Alex Salmond, who praised workers for keeping key roads open, despite widespread anger that many roads and pavements remain ungritted.

The cold spell is now threatening the lives of thousands of farm animals across the country.

Upland sheep farmers fear that their flocks could be killed as a result of deep snow. Those in hilly areas of the country, where snow drifts are already up to 4ft deep, are finding it increasingly difficult to get vital feed to their herds of cows and flocks of sheep.

Pat Withers, the chief executive of the National Farmers' Union of Scotland, told The Scotsman: "We have some fields where farmers are looking out and can't get to their flocks. They can just see the heads of their sheep poking up above the snow. One more snowfall there – and a bit of wind picking up – and they will lose them."

Mr Withers said the problem was particularly acute in the Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire and the Borders.

Some farmers have been unable, for up to eight days, to get vital supplies of supplementary feed to their livestock. They are also being hit by delays in suppliers reaching them along treacherous rural routes.

Rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead, who is being kept fully briefed on the deteriorating situation, said: "Scotland is in the grip of the harshest winter weather conditions in decades, which is adding to the weight of challenges faced by farmers at this time of year.

"I have been in contact with farmers and industry organisations to keep abreast of the problems created by this unusually bad weather."

Schools and roads all over the country were closed yesterday, with the Borders, North-east and Highlands bearing the brunt of the bad weather.

Last night, several hundred homes in the Kelso and Duns areas of the Borders were without electricity after heavy snow brought down power lines.

A ScottishPower spokesman said engineers were trying to restore supplies as quickly as possible.

Heavy snow and temperatures as low as -11C caused further disruption to roads, railways and airports across the country.

A woman died in a car crash in Shetland, while a 59-year-old pedestrian was seriously injured when he was hit by a car in Aberdeen. Both accidents are believed to be weather-related.

The Met Office said its predicted low of -20C by the weekend would hit sheltered inland areas such as Braemar, with parts of the Central Belt down to -11C by tonight.

The Borders was worst hit by yesterday's snowfall, with major routes such as the A7, A68 and A702 blocked or extremely hazardous.

Police said drivers should not take to the roads "unless it is a life-or-death situation", while all the region's First bus services were cancelled.

The A9 – the main route to the Highlands – reopened, but conditions were "atrocious" and other roads in the north and North-east remained blocked.

Farmers' fears

ABERDEENSHIRE farmer Tom Johnston spoke of the concerns facing farmers.

Mr Johnston, North East regional chairman of the National Farmers' Union of Scotland, said: "With the volume of snow there is no feed (for animals] except for the feed that you are taking out to them. With lambs and ewes it's important to keep them on a good ration and you have to get feed out on a daily basis. The job is extremely difficult because of the snow and ice.

The danger is that if we get windy weather and the snow blows you get drifts and sheep can actually be buried in the snow."

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Livestock-being-frozen-to-death.5961813.jp