The First Snowfall Of The Season

The first snowfall of the season..... just a dusting, but still.. snow!
(Click picture to enlarge)

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" ~ J.B. Priestley

We had snow on Saturday night, the first snowfall of the season. Actually, it is likely to be the only snowfall of the winter since we are so close to the ocean and the Gulf Stream flows just off shore keeping our winters on the milder side. Last year... no, it was in January past of this year... we had a huge snow... again, huge for this area. Ten inches of the white stuff covered the streets and houses and with a layer of sleet mixed in, it was a mess. Now a lot of you get ten inches on a daily basis or at least several times a year, but here, snow is a big deal. The kids take out dusty sleds and head for the highest sand dune or dirt mound they can find. Several years ago, they would head out to Mt. Trashmore (the reclaimed garbage dump) in Virginia Beach, but I recently found out that they no longer allow sledding.... they have added walking paths and landscaping that they don't want messed up.... oh, well.

Anyway, we had snow on Saturday night. At first it was intermittent and you really had to strain and look at a street light or in front of car headlights to see the occasional flake, but as the evening progressed it became obvious... it was snowing! The flakes made a wonderful addition to the televised local Christmas parade; although I doubt it helped the dance troupe in their thin costumes, especially when the temperature fell seven degrees in an hour. By morning the cars were coated and about a half an inch or so was on the ground with the grass still peeking through. Unfortunately ice, again, was part of the process and there was some difficulty with black ice on bridges and the expressways, but by noon most of the white stuff was gone. And so goes our first snowfall of the season... with not a snowman in sight!

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