This weekend brought us our first significant snowfall of the winter, about a foot waiting for my snowshoes. Here are a few photos from yesterday’s walk, along with an excerpt from the poem First Snow by Mary Oliver who passed away last week.
Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creekbed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain — not a single
answer has been found —
walking out now into the silence and the light
under the trees
and through the fields,
feels like one.
David Fisher, Carving Explorations 
It’s beautiful, how the snow seems to open up the landscape like a cotton boll that’s snapped open.
Walking in the fresh snow, with that scrunching sound under foot. I used to say a sharp hook knife cutting through a spoon bowl reminded me of that sensation, maybe that’s one of the reasons I enjoy spoon making 🙂 Thanks for the pics, a breath of cold fresh air.
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Wonderful connection between the sounds. I’ll think of that every time I’m hollowing a spoon bowl now.
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Wonderful tribute to a first snow and to a beloved poet. Thanks David
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Nice Dave. We only had 2-3” an hour south, almost all was rain! Mary Oliver is one of Becca’s favorites. Wonderful poet.
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What a difference for you southerners near Pittsburgh, Geoff. Rain coming here in a couple days, so I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
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Thanks, Dave! Especially like your pic of the dried thistle heads capped in new snow…
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Thanks, Dave, it’s nice to hear a fresh perspective on it, now that we’re three months into it, here in SouthCentral Alaska. Makes me re-appreciate it, and the poem is so beautiful and evocative, too. Are the snowshoes of your own making?
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Glad to hear that, John. When it comes to Mary Oliver, it is hard to go wrong. The snowshoes were not made by me — someday I’d love to do that though. These are Fabers — made in Canada. Traditional materials, wood and rawhide.
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Two trees growing so closely together makes a special individual snow drift.
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David,
Wonderful words by Mary Oliver and equally beautiful photos to accompany them. My favorite is the photo with the snow on the Teasel seed heads.
Thank you.
Michael W. O’Brien
Alabama
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