Snow Fall

I left New Hampshire behind this past Monday, but before I did I made one last commute down the snowy road. Sunday gave us a full on snow storm, which lasted into the early hours of Monday morning. The trees were heavy with the kind of powdery snow that falls when temperatures are low, which they have been. There's the silence of the land blanketed in snow, excepting the under boot squeaky on the road. But the most charming thing after a snowfall like this -the snow fall that happens after the storm has passed.

As the sun appears from behind the clouds, the snow on top of the evergreens begins to melt, weighing the snow down on the boughs. Eventually it gets too heavy and a when a breeze develops, clumps of snow drop from high above. These clumps hit lower boughs heavy with light, powdery snow creating cascades of snow fall. Its fun to watch, and if you are inside with a view out, often you just see the lightest, glistening crystals wafting in the air.

The road to my studio

Look to the right and you see the gazebo. This landscape does not create focus on the VIEW, meaning the sight towards Mount Monadnock. Its the highest peak in the region, but this landscape minimizes your visual access to it, affording us a sequestration from the desire for distance, daydreaming, or simply imagining we are the people on the hill, on top of the world -which we are, of course, but why think about it, look inward.

Much of northern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire suffered many tree breaks from the December ice storm. There were roadways I traveled where it seemed every other large or small tree had been snapped off 15 feet up its trunk. Many large limbs were snapped too, like this pine. Birch trees everywhere were either bent to the ground or snapped twenty feet up. Its gruesome. This image barely touches on the enormity of the damage.

My studio after the snow, last morning.

Snow fall.