First Snow - A Tribute to Snowflake Bentley

I'm not crazy about snow. We're sailors … not skiers nor snowboarders nor ski-mobilers. Snow is cold, wet and many times needs to be shoveled. It makes driving hazardous. All that said, there's something about the first snowfall of the year that's nostalgic and uniquely beautiful … like each snowflake itself.  

I remember reading that the anthropologist, Franz Boa, postulated that Eskimos (translated into current PC, that's the many dialects of the Yupik and Inuit languages) had over 1,000 words for snow. That theory has certainly been contested over the years. I wonder if the Inuits have a word for “lazy” snow … because that's my favorite. Watching big, individual flakes float down lazily before your eyes is mesmerizing. It's a good time to go outside, stick out your tongue and let the snowflakes just melt there. It's magic. Once snow accumulates a bit, it weighs heavy on the tree boughs and muffles sound. A comforting, welcome silence settles over the shimmering, white neighborhood.

After visiting the tiny museum in Jericho, Vermont in early October, I've been thinking about Snowflake Bentley quite a bit. Snowflake Bentley, aka Wilson A. Bentley, native of Jericho, first proposed the theory that no two snowflakes were alike. He was enthralled with snow and frost. His photographs of snowflakes to document their unique crystal formations was a lifetime passion. Obviously done outside in icy cold weather, he pioneered in the field of photomicrography. I've never tried photographing snowflakes or frost. This year, I might.

I found a CalTech website on snowflakes that's incredibly informative and fun. You can learn something about snowflakes, find out why snow is white and/or download snowflake wallpaper.

Snowflake Bentley, by the way, is also a wonderful children's book about the snowflake man. Exquisitely illustrated, it's magic for adults, too. I might just get one for someone special this Christmas.

A self educated farmer, Bentley attracted world attention with his pioneering work in the area of photomicrography, most notably his extensive work with snow crystals (commonly known as snowflakes). By adapting a microscope to a bellows camera, and years of trial and error, he became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885.

He would go on to capture more than 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime, not finding any two alike. His snow crystal photomicrographs were acquired by colleges and universities throughout the world and he published many articles for magazines and journals including, Scientific American and National Geographic.

Black Friday

 

Black Friday ...Wherever did they come up with that name for the day after Thanksgiving. I always thought it referred to the infamous stock market crash of 1929, the predecessor to the Great Depression. Oops! That was Black Tuesday. Black Friday referred to the stock market crash of 1873. Now it's a reference to the biggest shopping day in the year in the USA … although for some, that can be depressing in itself. Many retailers do most of their business in November and December and as such, move from being in the “red” to being in the “black” today. Hurray for the retailers!

Seems that we get to blame Philadelphia for popularizing this moniker. Back in the early 1970's, it was dubbed Black Friday by the Philly cops because of all the traffic and pedestrian mayhem caused by the crowds shopping on this day. It's typically a 4-day weekend (except if you work in a store) and everyone takes advantage of it to get a head start on their Christmas shopping. Stores lure you in with outstanding sales, free goodies, early openings and promotions up the wazoo. Where it's allowed, some stores open Thanksgiving evening, now dubbed Grey Thursday. Massachusetts' law forbids opening on the holiday, so retailers settle for opening at 12:01am on Black Friday. Of course, there are those retailers who advertise pre-Black Friday sales. Perhaps they should start in August?

While on the boat, this never mattered much. We don't do any Christmas shopping. But since we're back in the land of milk, honey and major consumerism for the holiday season this year, it's forefront in our minds. Even boat parts go on sale on this day. Lord knows, we ALWAYS need boat parts.

So, do we participate? Well ... yeah! We stood in line at Best Buy at 3am in the cold to buy a Toshiba laptop for $300 a few years ago. We've gotten DVD players for $19 and photo paper for $1. The buying frenzy overtook us though. The prices were sooooo good, we ended up buying things we didn't need.

We won't be heading out too early to buy our boat parts or electronics this year because we can buy on-line instead. You see, Cyber Monday follows Black Friday. People are out and shopping over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, but once they head back to reality on Monday, they've got time for the internet again. That's when cyber sales and shopping kick in … aka Cyber Monday. We'll make our buys then, in time for David to carry them back to Oz in a couple of weeks.

(pssst, this ad is an affiliate link...you can click it for Amazon's deals, but only until tomorrow!)

Unfortunately, I just received a $10 off merchandise coupon from Kohl's in the mail earlier this week. Not $10 off $50, just $10 off anything in the store … even if it costs $10.01. $10 … just barely enough to make me want to get up early to use it. Lin got one, too. Kohls opens at 1am on Black Friday. Guess what we'll be doing?

Signs of Winter

 

Autumn is leaving us rather quickly. We've raked up most of the once vibrant leaves that have fallen and the trees are becoming bare. David has been chopping wood for Lin's fireplace and we see smoke curling from the neighbor's' chimneys on many crisp mornings. The sky tends toward gray instead of blue. Dusk comes in late afternoon instead of late evening. We've dug out our gloves, warm jackets and heavy socks. The screens have been replaced by glass windows. The furnace comes on regularly though I always seem to be cold. Winter's coming … all too soon.

When we were in Vermont recently, we saw lots of woolly bear caterpillars crossing the road. All were mysteriously heading southwest; they prefer the warm evidently. I'm with them. Actually those poor guys freeze solid as a rock over the winter and thaw out in the Spring to become tiger moths. Short lives and most of it frozen. In the meantime, though, they're heading out of town.

Canada geese are honking up a storm. We see their V-shaped flight patterns regularly ... heading south, too.

Evidently some opt to stick around though, because we've seen them ice skating on the local ponds during the winter months. Crazy geese.

Squirrels have been busy here. They chatter away as they scamper up and down trees, mouths full, collecting their winter stores.

There are ads in the newspaper for cords of firewood, coal and plowing services. The barns and silos are full of hay. The cold and snow are sure to be upon us soon. I'm not wishing for a white Christmas.

After having summer Christmases down under for the past few years, I must say that going to the beach for a BBQ beats shoveling snow and freezing my tush off. Definitely time to return to Nine of Cups soon. Summer's coming to Australia. In the meantime, brrrrr!