Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The First Snowfall of the Season


Man has it ever been a while since I have really put a decent update online. Well today/tonight saw the first real snowfall of the season in West Michigan. It's December 1st, which is a rather late start for our area. Through today and this evening we've recorded a little over four (4") inches of snowfall in the metro Grand Rapids area, As always people need to re-adjust to winter driving and there were scores of accidents throughout the day.

Forgive me if some of the lighting is a bit off, I couldn't use a flash outside tonight. I always find the first few real snowfalls magical. We live only several hundred yards from a major expressway (which is visible in the second to last photo) and it's so silent. The silence that accompanies a snowfall is almost mystical. Living in the center of a large city we're used to lot's of everyday sounds and the drum of everyday city life around us. In winter, especially at night, it all seems so hushed. A quiet blanket of white muffling the earth's activities descends on the land. In the city, a cloudy night sky takes on a festive and warm glowing hue from the lights below. In the country, a deepened blackness provides a foundation for millions of stars and adds to the impression of the never-ending depth of our sky and universe.

On a night such as tonight in winter the world seems to slow down. The hushed atmosphere also seems suspended, as it were, in time and space. If it weren't for the falling snow and an occasional passing car or plane overhead one could easily imagine such a happening. I keep wanting to revert back to the word "magical", but there really is no other descriptive adjective that does the feeling justice. I dare you to step outside in a winter's snowfall and bring forth a more fitting term. Here's to the season my friends!