Its beautiful beyond the wavy glass this morning. Bluebird skies, snow blanketed landscape, a sun soaked and frosty 6° invitation to come out and play. But beware… best prepare for soggy snow soon.
You see, sunrise through wavy glass has a tendency to skew the view — miragelike, meditative — ever so subtly distorting the world beyond. A wiggle where an edge should be. A whorl where no spiral swirls. So many textured layers of morning. So too the snow, several successive layers, compressed by warmer days and colder nights, frozen firm now, a hardened helmet protecting against warmer days to come. And rain. Soggy snow soon as springtime sends save-the-date cards putting us on notice.
Today cold. Tomorrow cold. But then, a change.
Savor these sunsoaked days before springtime resumes a timeless debate between meteorological and astronomical seasons. Did springtime commence yesterday on March 1st? Or do we wait until the vernal equinox on March 20? Either way, we’ll witness warming. Then raining. Soggy snow soon with a whiff of springtime.
Perhaps Wednesday’s and Thursday’s rain will actually fall frozen or partially frozen. Spring snow is heavier and stickier than the powdery perfection we’ve enjoyed lately. Atmospheric moisture, emboldened by milder temperatures, dithers during the downward journey, indecisive — is it winter? is it spring? — and exhausting time for committing one way or the other, the wintry mix will touchdown on trees and lawns undecided. Part fluffy flake; part raindrop. And spring snow clings. Surfaces succumb, unable to resist winter’s last desperate embrace. Branches bend. Some break.
On balance to today’s wonder-filling winter weather (and in deference to the mercurial meteorological minders) I’ve rewound our Rosslyn chronology to Susan and my first springtime when we were still living at the Lapine House while rehabbing our new home through sun and snow, season after season. The photos in today’s post, taken on March 2, 2007, remind me to prepare for soggy snow soon.
What do you think?