Some Great Thoughts

Oh bother, I can't remember any of them. They were good, or I thought so. But I was over at Brother Dunstan's den, helping him out... or maybe eating his currant scones, I forget which. Well, anyway, it's December, nearly St. Nicholas Day, and maybe it will snow some day soon.

Wind shift

After three days of blowing to the east, the wind sock is headed west and the pinwheel's spinning. It's a blustery-but-not-quite-as-cold-as-before Sunday. The Craggy Mountains show white tops as I drive down Jupiter Road to Holcombe Branch. The song I sing is "Didn't he ramble?" The temperature is supposed to be 61 by Thursday.

Human Observers See Snowflakes Machines Can't Detect

From today's N.Y. Times Weather Report:

"FOCUS: FIRST SNOW SIGHTING Snowflakes were observed for the first time this winter at the official observation site in New York City's Central Park. This is the latest occurrence on record there for the season's first snow.... While an automated system is now responsible for most of the weather data at Central Park, human observers can augment the observations. Yesterday's snow was apparently too light to be detected by the automated system, but the human observers saw it."

The picture above is not of Central Park but rather my front yard on Tuesday, where even a robot would have been able to sense the snowfall.

I mourn the passing of Cosmo Dogood's Urban Almanac, a day by day calendar and almanac filled with observations of nature at all seasons in the city and decorated with apt quotations and pictures. The Almanac, modeled on the Old Farmer's Almanac, showed how nature is everywhere, that all you have to do is to look up and out and around you and notice what's going on in the natural world in which even a busy crowded city exists.

What Will the Robin Do Then?

The north wind doth blow

And we shall have snow,

And what will the robin do then,

Poor thing?

He'll sit in the barn

And keep himself warm

And hide his head under his wing,

Poor thing.

Mother Goose

Asheville had its first snow of the winter yesterday, a wet snow that stuck to every twig and needle, except for the tops of the bamboo that were in the wind. By morning the snow had blown off most of the trees but still lay in a thin layer on the ground. Here are a couple of glimpses for people in Oregon and Kansas. Now, at noon, there's only snow in the shady places.