Day 336
No sooner do I say it looks like snow … and it snows. I should have been a weather person. I was telling a friend, earlier today, that no snow is forecast, but it sure looked like snow to me. Ten minutes later the white flakes started falling.
It is beautiful out. It’s one of those weekend days where I have a few things I HAVE to do … go to Target and get cat meds is one of them. It’s important, he needs them.
And so with the thought of obligation in my head I ventured out in my faux sheep skin cheap parka (which is one of the warmest things I’ve ever purchased!), hooked up Mobes to her leash and went out for a walk in the snowy winter wonderland instead. Sorry Oscar!
I’m glad I did because the flakes were the big, fat kind that stick to everything and immediately change the landscape from brown/green to pristine white. The kind of snow that doesn’t last long because it either stops or changes to smaller flakes as it gets colder. I knew my window of opportunity was small.
As I sit here, up in my snug room looking out my tree-house windows, I see that the grassy areas are now almost completely covered and the snowfall has almost stopped. Pity. Snow is really pretty … as long as it could just stay on the grassy areas and off the sidewalks and streets! If that could happen, I’d be okay with four FEET of snow!
In any case … on our walk we headed north around our corner and then east down the block … down another two side streets southward and then back west. I was surprised how many Christmas decorations were still up. Nearing the end of the first week of January and it still felt so festive. It was really pretty and nice. Outside wreaths were lit and looked so pretty and green with the snow coming down. Inside the cozy homes I could see their Christmas trees still up with their lights on – twinkling in their front room windows. And though it’s never quiet here (due to the constant planes overhead) for a brief few moments in between landings there was a muffled stillness and it was … BLISSFUL.
I miss quiet. I don’t know how these people do it here. It is always noisy … like thunder in a canyon … booming echos go on and on. And it is constantly light. The Chicago street lamps cast an eerie orange glow over the area at night – so it’s never really dark. And there are no stars either. I miss all that … and it makes me miss my old park with its quiet, dark and millions of stars.
Anyway … there we were walking along, counting squirrels (the black ones are still my favorites!) and trees. My neighbor to the south of me has 13 oak trees on his property. I have 3! All of them are enormous – I cannot get my arms around any of them and their branches start to spread out a good ten feet over my head. They are beautiful and were even more so with the contrast of their darkened, wetted trunks – black against the white of the snow.
I let Mobes lead us about she’s always eager to go for a walk but we don’t last very long these days. Her age (12) is catching up with her. The cemetery was not calling today. It seemed too sad on a snowy day. All that loss. I think she somehow felt it too.
Instead we ventured down the secret road on our way back up to the house. It’s a narrow, wiggly road lined with homes tucked amongst the great oak forest with one of the trees rising out of the asphalt in the middle of the road! It’s amazing no one has knocked it down in all these years. The road is really narrow in that part and flanked by big trees on either side and it’s as if gnomes live in that section.
It’s a lovely area in the summer with the canopy so leafy and green. And was just as lovely today with its bare branches and the snow filtering down.
It was a beautiful day for a wintery walk with my good old girl, Mobes.