February 9 - February 13 Week 59/72
layered generations of snow
have been building and building
thin, soft, thick, crunchy, topped
with a dusting of near weightless
flakes clinging to the dry and brittle
remains of last summer's flowers as
water freezes, thaws and freezes again
forming long, crystalline carrots of ice
I absolutely love the idea of layered generations of snow. I'd never thought of it that way, although (I know, you won't be surprised), I was out yesterday and noticed that the huge Schoodic pine right my the front steps was gone!! It's a horizontal grower. I went over to look for it, and (yes, you guessed) I think there were at least five generations of snow, and the third generation was almost 2" thick ice--covering entire 1 1/2" thick branches--with up to three generations of increasingly light snow on top. I hacked away, hoping that I have at least saved the limbs from breaking. I think the pine really does belong up in its namesake home. The winds howl…