Thought for the day - 13 October 2001

Subject: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 12:04 AM

Mother Nature took out her bottle of chilled powder and tried out a dusting on the mountain this past week. Everywhere I looked, the dark green of the ponderosa pines was made darker in contrast to the pristine white of new fallen snow. There were about 5-6 inches on the ground, but it was warming and, in the tracks of the road, had already turned to a nice facial mudpack.

The trees, though! The beauty took my breath away, the tops of each one's branches outlined just perfectly, to the tip of each individual needle and, because there was no wind, it stayed in place. The aspen were more sparing in their use of coverup with only their bare branches to catch each flake. It did line the length of their trunks, on the north side, as it had on the pines, but the aspens, already so white, looked more like geishas than ever with an extra bit of powdering.

Sitting under the guy wires, stretching from the top of the 300 foot antenna to the ground, I was glad for the cover of the truck. The afternoon sun at 8600 feet was quite strong. Slices of icy snow, balanced on the tightrope wires, weakened with melting and one at a time would plummet to the ground. Some would twirl like whirly-gigs, while others fell like the Sword of Damacles. All were large enough, the dog and I were quite sure we didn't want to take a chance on being targetted.

It was fun, though, to soak up the rays, watch the birds, and listen for the fatal crash as each sliver fell. Then, we drove back through the hollow of deep, darkness, filled with pines and quiet solitude, a perfect balance to the earlier fun of kamikaze snow slivers.

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: SINSULL
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 12:18 AM

Geisha aspens - what a perfect image. There is no sign of snow yet in my part of the world. Tradition - to run barefoot in the first snow and revel in the cold. Too soon. Maybe late November.

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: rangeroger
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 01:13 AM

We also had a dusting of snow earlier this week on the mountains around the valley I live in.Level down to about 4500 feet.

This morning as I drove to work in Spokane, it started raining heavily as I went through Couer d'Alene.As I got further into Washington there was snow mixed with rain.When I drove home it had quit and was fairly dry,but the snow level was down to about 2500.

Summertime is falling down and winter's closing in.

rr

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 02:32 AM

Beautiful images Kat....can't help but be glad that my snow days are behind me tho, and that my tomatoes and cukes are still hanging heavy on the vines...

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 11:33 AM

Thanks, Mudlark, esp. for rubbing that in...hmmm...fresh veggies in October!?? Will wonders never cease!**BG**

RangerRoger it sounds lovely...I like those kinds of drives, everchanging landscape.

Sins, our old family ritual, in Colorado where the wind doesn't blow so dang much, is to go out late in the evening when the snow has hush-a-byed the day and it is cold enough to hear the crunch of your footsteps, and go for a midnight stroll under a cloud-blurred moon and few brave stars or, sometimes, if it is colder still, a brilliantly bright moon with piercingly silver stars. This is usually done closer to Christmastime.

Thanks everyone,

kat

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 14 Oct 01 - 01:30 AM

Beautiful, kat...almost makes me miss those snow-draped trees. I remember once cross-country skiing near Mt. Hood, my friends had gone up ahead and I stopped among firs and hemlocks shouldered with snow, and listened...to the deepest, most perfect silence I had ever experienced. Winter in the mountains is certainly magnificent.

On the other hand, earlier today I was swimming with a family of sea turtles! I'm happy.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Oct 01 - 01:34 AM

Geisha aspens, nice... I wrote about pine nuns once here; it would be funny if they met up along some road.

~S~

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Oct 01 - 02:32 AM

It snowed just a few miles away from me last week. I love the first signs of winter. The lace of frost, seeing my breath in the air and smelling the cold - it feels like the world is being cleansed. After the freshness of it wears off, I start wishing I lived in...say Mark, you don't have a spare room, do you?

Subject: RE: Thought for the day - 13 October 2001
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Oct 01 - 02:59 AM

There's also new snow in southeast Alaska. In fact, a lot of it is about 2,000 feet away from me- straight up!

Ebbie