A walk in the Snow

With the snow having fallen all morning and the promise of an ugly southbound commute, The boss kicked us out early in the afternoon. The roads were curiously well plowed and salted, so it was smooth sailing home; I arrived with time to play. We decided that a walk in the woods with all the snow was in order, so we headed over to Farbach-Warner nature preserve to check things out. Once we got A to stop talking about the Imperial Attack Shuttle and the radios built into the storm-trooper's helmets and listen to the cardinals, it became magical.

At the nature preserve, there is a stand of bamboo, near the maple sap boiling area. I've always been intrigued by this particular variety of giant grass. With the snow and cold it was bent over with the tops arcing to the ground, forming leafy snow-covered arches that children could walk under and parents could, well, shuffle is a good way of describing the best method for getting under it.

I didn't realize that my I had neglected to teach my children the joy of catching snowflakes on the tongue until I started doing it and they asked what I was doing. A caught on quickly that he had to pick out a snowflake a little ways up and move to catch it. L said 'to heck' with the idea of catching them in the air - There were millions of captives on the ground waiting for her to scoop them up and eat.

As is usually the case, they lagged far behind R and I as we walked. Occasionally they'd run to catch up - that usually meant hands full of snow to throw at our legs. Eventually we'll have to work on proper manufacture of snowballs.

So we managed to steal some magic time out of the day to teach the kids how to appreciate birdsong in the snowy woods and seemingly static creeks flowing just quickly enough to avoid freezing. These are the small splendors that so many of A and L's contemporaries are missing. Many of mine too, come to think of it.