Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snowflakes

I love living in a geographical location that allows me to experience the fruits of four wonderful seasons.
By now, each season should be so familiar to me, redundant, without expectation, and yet each time another one comes around it still feels new, fresh and full of surprises. 
These annual marks of change bestow upon us their own unique bounty of gifts, from cascades of leaves turned glorious hues of red and gold... 
to soft rains sent to wake up trees and seeds stuck in hibernation.
The glory of winter is indeed snow - for most of us, the first flurry alone is glorious, and then, we are soon disenchanted, pining for the Spring thaw.  Within each tiny flake is held properties that span the range of mystery, beauty, wonder, and scientific order hidden in a sparkle making its way to earth.  
 Snow's ability to stir up a child's energy and enthusiasm is a shot of happy pulsing into the day.
It has the power to put life on pause, to make time stand still, even if just for a moment to catch a snowflake on the tongue.


The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?  ~ J. B. Priestley 
And, that is our challenge, as adults....to see the snow the way they do....to appreciate it, to enjoy it, to revel in it....even if the end result is only to make us appreciate the Spring.

To learn and share a little bit more about the science and art behind snow/snowflakes, go to:
There, you can also find some fantastic teaching tools which include:
- magnificent photography
- explanation of snowflake physics
-  snowflake activities (paper snowflakes etc.)
-  a list of books to read on snowflakes






No comments:

Post a Comment