taxy, your snow pictures bring powerful images and memories to me of the early years i spent living in upstate new york.
the snow is so pure, so pretty. for a brief while it is, anyway... at times i felt like i was living in the confines of a ski resort, with a very active snow machine, constantly working to bury the browns of the earth and the grays of the paved streets and sidewalks, where life moved ahead, determined to continue its human course, a pace or two slower against the onslaught of high winds and drifting, blowing snows.
in the snow belt regions of new york's upstate, we would sometimes skip the summer season altogether. the sun rarely shone, the winds often blew harshly raw, and felt bruising, somehow uncivilized. when i complained, i was reminded that we lived in a place that was located in a subarctic lattitude, after all. my parents were reminded of their northern european childhood home in this climate, but to me it was simply brutally inhospitable.
as a youngster, i half prayed-half vowed to move far far away from n.y. as soon as i was grown. as an adult, in my middle twenties, i made good on that promise to myself, convincing my young husband at the time, to make the move to maryland, and start a new life in a softer, more gentle setting.
today, i look at pictures of snow- covered trees, houses, fences and town squares, with a longing that belongs to my youth. footsteps of long ago, disappeared under the new fallen snows....