A few days ago, under a clear blue sky, the air shimmered and sparkled as if someone had dumped glitter from a fire plane over the mountains. Somewhere in the twenty words for snow the Inuit have, there must be a name for sparkling ice drops that literally appear out of thin air. Chris says that technically humidity is precipitating out of the air, but I'm just going to call it the "glitter snow" from now on.
We had a few days of crazy warm temps (high 40's!!) that played havoc on my little ice sculptures. The roads morphed into a treacherous swamp of icy mud six inches deep that made driving feel like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, as the Jeep, 4-wheel drive be damned, would suddenly careen 4 feet to the right and as the tires hit the icy snow bank in the pasture, suddenly grab again and throw you the other way.
This was a mild 2 day preview of "Spring Thaw," which I now understand why Vermonters say it is the hardest season. However, after driving the back roads during snow, ice and a thaw, I don't blink an eye now or even gasp when the car is suddenly sideways on the road. I just throw it into 4 low, back up and keep going. Ugh! How do I get myself into these things? Somehow this wasn't a skill set that I envisioned this Southern girl ever needing.
After a day of melting weather, the front moved on, dragging icy weather in it's wake and by the next day, the waterfall was frozen again, a new sculpture of ice forming;
the back roads to ski school froze and covered over the ugly mud with a new layer of fresh snow and the winter world was set back to rights.
