At first, the snow came down in soft, slow flurries, seeming to be in no particular hurry as each snow flake drifted down to land gently somewhere on the garden.
(I know it makes no sense for “flurries” to be slow, but they were slow.)
Then as the winds picked up, the snow fell quickly, snowflakes clumped together, as though it was terribly important to cover the bleakness of the late fall garden with a fresh coat of white snow as fast as possible.
The forecast called for “a dusting to an inch of accumulation”. I didn’t measure it, but I would guess this first snowfall on my garden on Saturday, December 6th was close to inch.
The day after the snow, I took the opportunity to see who else has been in my garden.
I found some bird tracks.
But you know I was looking for rabbit tracks, which I didn’t find. Ha! Where are they? I’ll find them eventually. This isn’t the last snowfall of the season, and they can’t hide forever. Eventually they have to venture out to find something to eat.
(By the way, snow isn’t blue like that. You know that. I know that. I took that picture in the shade and it just came out blue.)
I’ve captured the snowfall in two videos for your viewing pleasure.
This first video is of the snow falling. Please excuse that humming noise, I don’t know what that was, perhaps it was an overzealous neighbor using a snow blower for this little pittance of snow. Snow makes no noise as it falls.
This second video is of the raised bed vegetable garden this bright, sunny morning after the snow. You can hear the crunch of my footsteps through the frozen snow.
When you walk through fresh fallen snow, there is no sound. But the next day, it’s frozen up a bit so it crunches underfoot.
All of this snow should be gone by Tuesday, when the high temperature should be close to 50 F. But soon enough, it will snow again, and we’ll repeat this cycle of snow and thaw, snow and thaw, until the final spring thaw.
*****
This post is part of the Garden Bloggers’ First Snowfall Project hosted by Nancy Bond. Thank you, Nancy, for this opportunity to share the first snowfall at May Dreams Gardens
So that’s what winter looks like … you’d have howled with laughter to see what an accumulation of snow looked like here back Christmas 2006. Our snowman was 6 inches tall.
How lovely! It would be nice to have it on a morning like this, otherwise I am fine without it!
I love your crunchy video, Carol – it’s still kind of fun at the beginning of December with just an inch, isn’t it?
We’ve had snow a couple of times, but it doesn’t last. When we had a midnight snowfall in February 2004, Austin people flipped on patio lights so they could build table-top snow-people and take videos before it melted.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I love the sound of crunching snow! (I guess it’s pretty obvious I’m a native of the North.) That video was very fun!
Looks about like here, Carol. I haven’t ventured out into it yet though. I’ve not been feeling well and just don’t feel up to it, but I’m going to make myself do it before it’s gone. The sun is shining brightly right now!
I think the humming sound you hear on the video is actually the camera itself. Everything else is so quiet, you really notice the hum of the camera. Mine does the same thing. I might be wrong though. It’s just that it’s so uniform.
I love that you posted these videos of what seems to us very common, bringing common things to our attention. I love first snow!
I love the silence of snow.
I wasn’t feeling the cold until you began walking on the crunching snow…then it all came crunching back! Frozen snow means it’s really cold!
gail
I’ll include your post on the First Snowfall page. Thanks for participating. 🙂
The first snowfall is such fun Carol. You have some great pictures and the “crunchy” video is great. Don’t you wish this was Christmas morning? It would be just right for not making travel a challenge and Santa would have enough snow to get around quick and silently.
Lovely to see and hear the snow; I haven’t seen any for 17 years; still trying to persuade the Geek to try skiing. We Southern Hemisphere bloggers will have to help you deal with your gardening deprivation for the next few months. I think the Garden Bloggers’ Project will be waiting a while to get a First Snowfall contribution from me!
I love that sound! I’m sure you’ll get sick of it, but it’s nice for those of us who won’t have any snow to hear.
Those are cool videos…it would be nice to see some snow out here in California.
That snow crunching sound brings back fond memories from childhood. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to have a crunchy snow day in Austin this year.