Winter snow

I can't remember when we've had snow like this in time for Christmas. Our normally mild winters cause the appearance of snow to be a pretty novelty, rather than the yearly annoyance I grew up with in ND. Here the snow is a major disruption, causing school closures and abundant traffic problems, both unheard of in ND. There I learned to put up with several months of cold and snow, bundling up in goose down coats and moon boots, shoveling the driveway and side walk, plugging in the car's block heater at night and scraping ice off the windshield in the morning. One enjoyable aspect was ice skating on frozen ponds, which were constructed every year in most neighborhood school yards. I have particularly fond memories of a natural pond all to myself, found in the barren hills behind our house, an area now completely taken over with housing developments.

Inspired by the fresh dusting of softly falling snow, I went out to capture a few wintery images today.