Aaaaaahhhh......Snow!!!

Since we're talking about things we love- or maybe don't love- this month, it seems like a good time to reminisce about my life-long love od snow. This is my older brother, the winter I was born. Too bad no one photographed the time about two years later when he dragged me through the snow in a cardboard box, oblivious of my screams. The cardboard had worn through and so had my snowsuit.

But I soon forgot it. I was always the one who wouldn't come in even when my nose looked like Rudolph. In my early teens, I learned to ice skate, and in winter, my brother and I spent many a night in the moonlight skating on the town reservoir.

I really missed ice skating when we moved to Oklahoma. Not that winters aren't cold or snowy there. But the weather is, well, less predictable. This is April Fools Day, 1969. A foot of snow.

In Colorado, we saw a winter with snow on the ground all but 15 days. We loved to go into the mountains for even more of the stuff. Left to right, the kids are Lori, 7, Jeannie, 4 and Andy, 9. The dogs are Lily, mutt Muttsy, and Jack.

Here's a grown-up Jeannie, Andy and me (not sure I grew up) in the Ape Caves on Mt St Helens in winter. We had to slide down those stairs behind us to get in, and getting out was interesting.



One of my favorite homes was on Horseshoe Lake in Woodland, WA. The view over the lake made both winter and summer special.












Our dogs may have loved the snow, but our cats didn't necessarily agree. Alright, none of them did. Jinx's first winter, New Years Day 2001. She thought her world had died.

















Camellias blooming in the snow, March 28, 2008.



















Jinx had no interest in blooming camellias.












Nope, still doesn't. Today, same window.











The tree outside is more than twice as tall, but that's about all that's changed. In fact I couldn't even get her into the window until I bribed her with kitty treats. But once she saw the value of posing, I couldn't get her out of the window.