First Snow

It wasn't the blinding snowstorm all the children wished for at Christmas-time. It crept in, to paraphrase a famous poet, "on little cat feet", and on the heels of a cold, cold, rain. Dropping temperatures Monday night turned the rain into snow.

This blogger awoke at 4:00a.m. this morning to a winter wonderland. White clouds reflected the snow's luminosity back to create an ethereal still-life painting. To paraphrase another famous poet, "not a creature was stirring". White, gray, and a touch of black were the predominant colors of the landscape.

This blogger decided he would be "snowed in for the day". Not like his great grandparents in the soddie on the plains of Nebraska, where a three foot snow would sequester them inside for weeks at a time. No, more like an urban denizen who did not go to work. He would avoid the "graveyard mall" (the after Christmas returns) and the soon-to-be slushy roads which connect commerce and social circles.

Next consideration: the wildlife that he habitually feeds daily. The deck had an inch of snow cover, but the railing was miraculously clear. The bird seed was placed in a thin line and the shucked corn in a small pile. The birds would re-position themselves from the feeder and Blondie and Godzilla (the two regular squirrels) would create a new route to the railing. Sure enough, the ever crafty Blondie was the first to arrive!

This blogger made a pot of Aztec chocolate coffee and found the package of yeast. He pulled his grandmother's recipe for bread out of the recipe box and began the labor of bread making. Remember those bread machines which were popular a few Christmases ago? This blogger has never used one, preferring the old fashioned ways of baking.

Mixing, kneading, punching it down, and letting it rise again, the bread dough went into the oven. The children in the house across the street came out in their winter garb and immediately made snowballs to throw at passing buses. The smell of baking bread wafted through the apartment as the sun burst through and began its timeworn task of melting the snow and marching forward to eventual Spring.