Snow, granola, and Six Words

Shock. Dismay. White blanket covers all.

Much to my surprise, when I walked into the kitchen this morning the back yard was covered with at least an inch of snow and it was still falling heavily. What!? All the snow had melted and it seemed like warm weather was on the way.

So it seems like a day to do stuff at home, at least until it stops and the roads are plowed. I decided to make granola. I love my granola recipe, which I found a year or so ago on npr.org of all places. It's called Indulgent Granola, and it certainly is. It includes honey, butter, cinnamon and cardamon along with oats, nuts, and sugar. While you can use any nuts, the article suggested pistachios and they're now my favorite for this recipe. Unfortunately, it's hard to find shelled pistachios, so I sat at the kitchen table shelling 2 cups of pistachios. This gave me plenty of time to think about the snow.

I thought I might write a poem. I thought about how the first flakes back in November are so unassuming, pretty little sparkles floating in the dark. Then it gets to be a drag, all that shoveling, driving on slippery streets, slogging through dirty slush. The poem wasn't coming together, so I started making Six Word poems.

Pretty little sparkles, floating in darkness.

If you haven't heard of Six Words, you can check it out at sixwordmemoirs.com. There are a lot of creative people playing with the idea of summing up an experience, an idea, a personality, in just six words. I plan to use Six in Schools for Poetry Month.

Silent snow descends. Snowblowers roar back.

And a last thought:

Snow. So pretty. Your time's up.

Musings on the weather

We have an awful winter in the midwest. It has not gotten above 20 degrees for weeks, and has hovered around zero for days on end. A couple of days ago I thought, "It's not bad today, the temperature feels okay," as I got in my car to go to work. Then I heard on the radio that with the wind chill it was 9 below zero. I guess you get acclimated to endless cold. And we have snow - several feet of it. I know that other parts of the country have also had an unusually cold and snowy winter as well. I don't envy my friends on the east coast.

But today is not only sunny, but the temperature is in the 40s! It feels like spring. A tiny portion of the snow has melted. It is actually pleasant to be outside with just a sweatshirt on!

I got to thinking about ice ages, and what it would be like if we were entering another ice age. I also watched a time lapse look at snow and ice cover from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which to me resembled glaciers moving down into the United States, and then retreating. (The video is on Facebook and I was able to figure out how to find it on the NOAA site, so here's the link to FB: Science on a Sphere) It's an interesting visual of snow and ice cover over the last year and three months.

My train of thought took me to disaster movies, and thoughts about what a disaster movie about advancing glaciers would be like. "Quick honey! Grab the kids! The glacier will be here in 50 years!" Of course, in disaster movies, no one listens to the lone expert who sounds the alarm. Then disaster strikes - the fire in the ultra tall building, the sinking ocean liner, the storm of the century! And then it's too late. So in our Ice Age movie that might look like, "We should have listened! The glacier will hit us in 5 years! Pack your bags!" I guess that won't fly.