Snow, snow & snow!

All this talk of NYC and Nemo threw me back in time. A year or so before I moved out of the city there was a terrific snow storm in the city and I remember it all so well. Growing up in SoCal, snow was always so magical to me…the only time I experienced it was on trips to the mountains as a kid where we would fly down hills on sleds and toboggans  and on skiing adventures as I grew older. Living in this part of the country, while we get snow on occasion, it is nothing like that I was so lucky to experience in New York.

The snow here is far icier and usually freezes into sheets of ice once it hits the ground. Even up at Mt. Hood, where snowboarders and skiers abound, the snow conditions, in my mind are less than super. I was used to much more powdery conditions and many times, skiing in the sunshine while living in SoCal! But, Mt. Hood is a giant glacier, after all, so it’s not surprising that it can be glare ice much of the time. My final skiing adventure up there in 1980 ended in a tree well with hip and shoulder damage that, after all these years, won’t seem to let me forget that eventful day! So, these days, I leave it all to the youngsters and while I do marvel at the snowboarders and every once in awhile think I would like to try it, just once…I know better. Although, of late, I have been thinking about dune boarding – after all, it’s sand, how much could it hurt to fall in it? Anyone?

I took the pix above during that storm all those years ago from my kitchen table in New York. The corner of 70^th and First – looking quite interesting layered in lots and lots of lots of snow. And, keep in mind, that because of all the hospital entrances on 70^th and York, that intersection is an emergency road so it is cleared more frequently than other streets in the City! Rockhound that I am, looking at all that snow puts me in mind of crystal quartz – both rough and polished stones. There is something quite magical about the gemstones and how they form in nature. If you haven’t seen my Pinterest postings lately, you can see lots of quartz in the rough in giant geode form in my Tucson Gem Love folder. Looking at the giant geodes gives me a true appreciation of these gifts of Mother Nature. I love that we are lucky enough to be able to wear them on our wrists or around our necks. Isn’t it grand?