...or snowy(er)
That is the question. Here I am, in one of the snow capitals of the whole planet. It is certain that I will see at least 100 inches of snow this winter. It is likely to be more than 200 inches, and if it is a record year, we will be looking at over 300. That is a BIG WOW for me. So far, there has not been a lot of snow. I know, it's still early. The question is, am I feeling anticipation...or DREAD? I have no idea. I know I don't like driving (or riding...ask Bob) in icy/slick snow conditions. On the other hand, I LOVE snow. So I just don't know. Here are the pros and cons of it.
Maybe I should get the cons over with first!
There is a BIG Lake near here, and it determines a lot of things about the weather...mostly that the weather is schizophrenic most days. Go ahead and read the forecast. Then read it an hour later. The truth is, no one knows. See, it's dependent on so many things, but especially the distance you are from The Mighty Gitchigumi, or your altitude, which varies wildly between the two places I hang out most these days.
Really good example. Saturday, we needed to drive from Paynesville to Ontonagon, and then planned on driving around and taking in the scenery for a while. It was mostly cloudy when we left Paynesville. We reached Rockland without anything seeming different, (stopped and took a couple of pictures of the old dam site for the old Minesota [sic erat scriptum :)] Mine by Rockland,
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| the water was just so perfectly shimmer |
but just past town, we could see a WALL of snow approaching. We were in the snow zone from then on all the way to Ontonagon. I was feeling a little disappointed, because the conditions were nearly white-out, and I knew our drive couldn't happen. However, on the way back to Rockland, we fell right back out of the snow zone.
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| The road north |
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| the road south |
It seemed our drive would happen after all. And it did! We took forest road 730 (my "Longcut" road from another post) and the snow caught up to us in the forest. Unlike being on the highway, where you have to worry about slickness and traffic and curvy up and down roads, taking the forest road means you must go slow, so you don't really care. And you have time to look around. And stop for pictures. And get out of the car and pick up dried lichen and grasses and seed pods and cattail fluff for your craftiness projects, and you count your daily eagles at THREE, although you can hardly see them through the BIG floofy flakes of snow that is so beautifully falling in the forest. AND you realize that you have gotten past the cons and into the wonderful PROS of UP snow!!!
You should have been there. I thought my pictures were going to be as magical as my experience of taking them was. BUT it was snowing really a lot! and most of my pictures are blurry blobs of dark stuff surrounded by blurry blobs of white stuff.
But it WAS magical. You'll just have to believe me.
Maybe this will give you an idea:
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| white aspens in white snowstorm |
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| two of the three daily eagles |
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| snow on spruce |
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| queen anne's lace or future addition to my paper-making endeavors |
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| this is one of the pictures I thought would be beautiful....hmmmm.... |
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| here's another...these little spruce trees stood out a lot more in real life! |
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| beautiful floofy snow |
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| I love how the snow mutes all the colors |
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| or makes subtle colors stand out |
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| or provides even more camouflage for an already camouflage-y bird |
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| or how it can make a little red squirrel even more cute(r) |
Anyway, the rest of my pictures do look a little bit like that famous painting "White Cat in a Snowstorm" or something similar. I'm not worried. Because it's only the beginning. We have another month or so of the days getting shorter, before the rest of the winter lags on (and on). That alarms me a little as I look directly SOUTH out my window and see the sun lower in the southern sky than this Iowa girl has ever seen it (what a difference 600 miles makes!!!)
But I'm determined. To take beautiful pictures. Of white cats, maybe. And come March or April, when I am announcing to my UP friends, (and you know who you are) how much I LOVE the snow, you will know that I have the chance of becoming a real Yooper Girl after all!
God is good, eh?
Amen!
PS. If you are not from the UP and want to see how deeply I'm buried in the white stuff here, this link takes you to the current snow depth map. Pretty interesting stuff....for snow lovers like me :)
Upper Peninsula Snow Depth Map
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