There’s this new reality show on TV. It’s kind of strange actually. The way it works is they tell you about events as they happen. It’s called: “The News.” Today, it would appear, my sleepy little town, in fact my entire sleepy little state has made “The News.” You see, we’re getting a blizzard. It’s not just a random, run of the mill, regular ole’ blizzard, nope, we are getting something these “News” people have dubbed, “the blizzard of the century!” (Oh joy!)
Now at first this blizzard thing started out last week as a bit of icy rain. No worries, right? I mean, it was just like a random Thursday night and we would stay home for a bit, maybe relax for a day or so and then get back to it, right? Just a little ice, right? We are Texas, we can live through that, right? Right? Ha! WRONG! What actually happened is that we got some kind of “freezing rain sludge” garbage that fell from the sky and stuck around, in fact, it’s still here. If that were not enough, the temperatures have not gone above freezing so we have the aforementioned “sludge” with additional sleet, snain (it’s a thing, really, trust me, I’m shoveling it now) wintry mix and all kinds of gunk thrown atop the blizzard pile. The hits just keep on coming. Today we saw it snow but not just snow. The phone said it was going to snow but then I heard what sounded like sleet then it sort of stopped then it snowed again for like ten minutes, then more snain then snow again. It’s like the clouds can’t make up their collective minds and have all gone winter crazy. As of right now, I think we have what amounts to an inch or so of snow atop an icy base layer. If that sounds slippery, you’re right, it probably is. (Nobody wants to go outside long enough to find out if it is or not.)
To give you an idea of how bad things are, the local grocery store, HEB, has run out of everything *except* toilet paper (I take it we Texans learned our lesson from the pandemic regarding what is a true “necessity” in hard times but that is perhaps a post best left for another day.) There is no milk left, no butter, no eggs, but we all seem to have an abundance of snain.
It started on Thursday. Friday found the temperatures dipping up a little bit, probably just getting to the freezing point if we’re being honest. As I worked at my computer, all I could hear were the sound of chainsaws grinding away. It seems our ice storm downed a lot of trees. Now, my neighborhood has a lot of big trees so no surprise there. In fact, my Dad called to tell me that he has a down tree over at his house. No word yet on when he can get out and he’s not in a hurry to try. (He’ll call to have it removed this week and it did not hit the house so no worries there. It’s just blocking the driveway which, you know, would be a problem and all were it not for our lovely snain piles in the yard.)
As for myself, sometime last week when we got the snowfall, I had become completely obsessed with how the trees look in the snow. I just can’t help myself. I love this winter wonderland so much, I’ve been running around as best I can with my camera taking odd shots of trees in the misty morning snow. Last week, we had the big flakes and the snow itself (sans ice) and I was like a kid in a candy shop. This time around, it’s a bit harder to walk, as everything is so icy, but we’ve got icicles everywhere. The trees once again have that winter coat of frosting and I’m doing my best to try to make the most of it photographically. My latest obsession is shooting wintry trees.
I’ve been using this new technique that you can see here, where I blend an abstract digital painting with a photo of the winter trees to make a sort of dreamy looking winter wonderland image. I am having a lot of fun making these, as it’s something different from my usual work. Usually, I avoid the winter as best I can but this time I’m finding it a bit fascinating so I’m trying to get out into it as much as I can.
Spring will be here soon enough. Our snain will leave too. How does that old saying go? “To everything there is a season…” I guess you can say we’re living through the season of snain. Pass the camera, please!
Until next time…
