Leaves Dancing, Snow in the Clouds

 

 

Winter in the Woods,  1899

 

 When sunset rays

Lace through bare trees.

As light fades, a chill wind

Swirls fallen crumbled leaves,

Once so bright and drifting 

 

With a dancer’s flourish.

In darkness, the clouds roll back

As a scroll of gray and black. 

The reigns of summer and autumn

No longer tower and burn.

Midnight reveals

A treasure chest of winter:

 

Ice and snow prepared

To lay ruin to the land. 

 

Many thanks to a former blogger, Delores, who started the Wednesday Words as a challenge for writers to expand their writing.

 

Delores retreated from the blogger world after a few years, passing it on to  River. Elephant's child passed away in the fall, and I will miss her writing and photos.

 I wrote this poem in 2012, and the bold words were guest words for that week. 

Snow in Chicago

 Snow holds no mystery for us as we have experienced it for our entire lives until we got married and fled. But then my husband was a TA at Iowa State University. Snow swept across the prairie and locked us in at any given time.

Victorville, California

And then...

We dwelled in Victorville, California, in the Mojave Desert, a hellish wasteland. Surrounded by flat fields of sand, sagebrush, scrubs, and tumbleweeds, our family grew there for seven years. When the temperature plummeted to 94 deg. F/37 C., it felt like we needed jackets.

And then....

We moved to Ireland then where there was rain every day.  It was joyous, for the world was green and lush. Sadly, we lived there for only a few years.

And now...

Now we are enjoying a fairly even climate and enjoying the beauty of our area.  But, we miss some of the spring, all of the fall, and maybe a nibble of winter from Illinois. Summer in the Midwest is not missed at all.

And then...

My son John married Arlette in Chicago at December 4, 2016, with both families all around. What we also experienced was an unexpected taste of winter.

Just a taste, a beautiful taste was all we needed.

A cemetery was across the street from our really cool hotel. When
we arrived , I promised our gr-daughters we would explore
it tomorrow.

And then...

The next day we woke up to see snow, it was glorious.

The table on the balcony was pure and smooth.

Our gr-daughters were thrilled when the snowflakes began
to fall. 

And then the next day, we left the snow behind and flew

to LAX. The diamonds of light lay down below, making Los Angeles 

truly resemble where angels might actually have been.

God created snow, rain, desert, etc. He has a plan for us, for what awaits us. 

Snow? It is all part of the plan, just like barren wilderness or swamps, it is all part of His plan.

So, I guess we have to go with "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

This is a post from long ago.  Our son John got married back in 2016, and it was a great day.

The AxMan survives.

 

Snow fell with a vengeance.  Indoors, forester "AxMan" Clement thought about the loaded supplies, ready to last for two calendar weeks. He looked at the snow, Clement made the decision and opened the door.  “I’m going out to get the milk and doughnuts, honey!” Pregnancy demands, husband obeys.

Clement heard a familiar sound.  He looked up, just in time to witness a potential tragedy.

Top of the tree swayed, as if undecided, out of balance.   The "AxMan" below nervously ran away.  Success is when an AxMan survives.

These are Wednesday Words from long ago. are from there. I am guessing this was back in 2013 or so. 

source

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

Treasure Chest of Winter

Winter Winds, Chopin, Pentatonix

 

Last rays of sunset

Lace through bare trees.

As light fades, a chill wind

Swirls fallen crumbled leaves,

Once so bright and drifting

With a dancer’s flourish.

In darkness, the clouds roll back

As a scroll of gray and black. 

The reigns of summer and autumn

No longer tower and burn.

Midnight reveals

A treasure chest of winter:

Ice and snow prepared

To lay a frozen ruin to the land.

 

  https://youtu.be/pHlqEvAwdVc

 

Wednesday Words, from 2012. We bloggers are blessed. to be surrounded by so much talent.  The Wednesday Words were a writing challenge for bloggers to make a change with a different something.  

 

When it snows, it really snows

Weathermen in the Northeast called the latest snowstorm an anomaly.  Frank was called in to the warehouse to forklift pallets of salt for the snow plows.

He had wished to be part of the snow plow guys, but he wasn’t ambidextrous which was great help in such a job and meant better money.  Frank continued to deliver bags and bags of salt.

Finally tow trucks were able to pull abandoned cars to the impound lots, including Frank’s new sports car.   Always deleterious in care of his belongings, Frank discovered heavy salt residue mixed with icy snow covering the car had eaten through the snazzy black paint, creating zebra stripes in the where red had once been.

Frank shook his head sadly.  At least he had been faithful to pay his car insurance. Hope it covers all this.

These words are from Wisewoman, as part of Wednesday Words Please visit her by clicking on site. I'm guessing that many of you are tired of the snow. Yeah. I remember snow up on the porch and even into the barn.

 

As we head into another stinkin' hot summer in our desert of California, I will remember this photo.

 

Wash my hair with snow....

Photos from those in snowy frozen land are incredible. Beautiful, white, crystalline snow glistens in the early Winter season. 

 Winter is all good until February hits.(I personally feel that February is the hell of winter.). But, until then, this post is a reminder that at least Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera Ellen anticipated the joy of snow. Didn't happen (!), but oh it was something else later on.

Snow, let it snow

                                

                                                                          Chicago

Pearls of Ice,

Riding on arrows of wind,

Slicing through the fragile

Fabric of days and nights.

Stirring the crunchy creamy snow:

Clear the driveway

Or

Call for a cab ?

Harsh decisions, harsh reality,

Harsh winter.

This is a re-post from 2015. The high lighted words are from Wednesday Words, a writing challenge for bloggers to experiment in genre. Delores created this entertaining writing for bloggers to create. Delores stepped down from this, handing the baton over to other blogging friends to continue. New words can be found at Elephant's Child during the week.

 

For my sister, Mary.

She survives each winter with a little grace and some wine. Her quilts are phenomenal.

 

 

Fire in the Trees

 

When cold blows in from 

Canada, pushed up by warm wind from Texas, snow happens suddenly and furiously.  Only older siblings, big enough to sink only to the knee and then leap into the snow face first, could rejoice

                                                     

For two small children, enjoyment was peering out through icy panes and wishing.  Mom…Mom…Mom…Can we go outside, too?  Mom? Mom?  Mom relented only when Mom became unbearable.

Two and four years old, Mary and Bill were wrapped, bundled, booted, and mitten-ed, then given instructions:  Stay on the porch.  Both nodded solemnly.

Mom stood at the kitchen door, staring through the lacy ice crystals at five children enjoying the snow.  Then Bill launched off the porch into deep white sea. Bill, she sighed. 

Stomping out the door, Mom grabbed him by scruff of his coat and pulled him up.  Then Mary whispered, “Mommy!  Mommy!  Look!  Fire in trees!  Fire in snow!”

Fire in the trees?  In the snow?  She beheld glorious cardinals perched in bare trees.  Fiery cardinals with black masks.  Brave cardinals in frigid air. Oh,my! So, so,....

Mom hollered, “You kids get in here.  Been out long enough!”  But she continued to watch until fire became scarlet birds winging over snowy horizons.  

Fire in the Trees
For those bloggers in the beginning of a long winter, this story is about the snow of 1958, which has been called the mini-ice age. This time was our first time on the farm in a very old house.  This post was from December 8, 2014.  Keep warm, enjoy the beauty as much as you are able, and Merry Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow! Glorious Snow! Ha.

Snow holds no mystery for us as we have experienced it for our entire lives until we got married and fled. But then my husband was a TA at Iowa State University. Snow swept across the prairie and locked us in at any given time.

Victorville, California

And then...

We dwelled in Victorville, California, in the Mojave Desert, a hellish wasteland. Surrounded by flat fields of sand, sagebrush, scrubs, and tumbleweeds, our family grew there for seven years. When the temperature plummeted to 94 deg. F/37 C., it felt like we needed jackets.

And then....

We moved to Ireland then where there was rain every day.  It was joyous, for the world was green and lush. Sadly, we lived there for only a few years.

And now...

Now we are enjoying a fairly even climate and enjoying the beauty of our area.  But, we miss some of the spring, all of the fall, and maybe a nibble of winter from Illinois. Summer in the Midwest is not missed at all.

And then...

My son John married Arlette in Chicago at December 4, 2016, with both families all around. What we also experienced was an unexpected taste of winter.

Just a taste, a beautiful taste was all we needed.

A cemetery was across the street from our really cool hotel. When
we arrived , I promised our gr-daughters we would explore
it tomorrow.

And then...

The next day we woke up to see snow, it was glorious.

The table on the balcony was pure and smooth.

Our gr-daughters were thrilled when the snowflakes began
to fall. 

And then the next day, we left the snow behind and flew

to LAX. The diamonds of light lay down below, making Los Angeles 

truly resemble where angels might actually have been.

God created snow, rain, desert, etc. He has a plan for us, for what awaits us. 

Snow? It is all part of the plan, just like barren wilderness or swamps, it is all part of His plan.

So, I guess we have to go with "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

General Sherman vs. General Grant

Moro Rock

When our gr-daughters were off for spring break, we invited them to go on an adventure to see the Sequoia trees in Yosemite, California. We all had wanted to take this trip for some time and this was a perfect time.

Winter in the mountains had been strong with snow still piled high in the mountains. It was outstanding.

Sherman tree, largest in the world by mass. Girls showing true selves, and all that.

Grant tree, 2nd largest. There was too much snow to get to see it.

 I fell here, but then I fall everywhere.

Snowball at sister. Never been around snow before.

We thought this dog was big...

...until we met this Great Pyrenees. 

This is what we expected, given the info provided by host. Rustic.

This is what we saw when we got out of the car.
Neighbor said it had burned down 10 days ago.

Then the owner pulled in, saying that he didn't know this had happened until he received notification from fire department. He said we could stay in the other two rustic apartment, but there was no electricity.
We asked what we could do. He said that he would rebuild. 

The neighbor told us about Camp Nelson Lodge in Springville, CA,  about 10 miles away.

It was awesome. Truly awesome.

It did remind me a little of The Shining hotel in how perfect it is.
Apparently this entire mountain has areas known for hauntings, which we didn't know at the time.

The entire lodge is pristine, no dust anywhere. I checked. Hmmmm.