Snow(ish)

I am, in case you hadn't noticed, amused by weather.  It's not just a conversation filler, it's interesting! So many variations, options, effects...

Anyway, here I go again.  It's been getting steadily colder and then suddenly we had frost and our little pond froze over.

This morning, the girls set off for the bus stop and within a minute or two the phone rang - I panicked, realizing Merlin had forgotten her clarinet, said to Devin who was on the other end saying, "It's snowing!" that I was bringing it; grabbed it, dashed out the door (at least I put on shoes, didn't deal with a coat over my sweatshirt) and then realized... it was snowing.  Well, snow enough for us, I guess, more like spitting little ice pieces.

It did this to everything outside:

 I didn't realize that spiderwebs could get iced up:

And then if they get jiggled the ice breaks apart:

It's really pretty and really cold and Merlin's quite entranced by the ice on the pond.  She keeps getting me outside to look at it and watch her poke it to break up the ice.  Some folks are easily pleased. :)

On the bus, later, a lady told me it wasn't actually snow, but something I've now forgotten, maybe Schnee regen (snow rain: sleet).  I find the German word for snow hilarious.  Say it several times and see if you don't laugh. Schnee Schnee Schnee.

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Here, a snippet of today's poem on The Writer's Almanac, by Kenneth Rexroth.

...November has come to the forest,
To the meadows where we picked the cyclamen.
The year fades with the white frost
On the brown sedge in the hazy meadows,
Where the deer tracks were black in the morning.
Ice forms in the shadows;
Disheveled maples hang over the water;
Deep gold sunlight glistens on the shrunken stream...