Snow

🎶Snow

Oh, to see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow

What is Christmas with no snow

No white Christmas with no snow

Snow

I’ll soon be there with snow

I’ll wash my hair with snow

And with a spade of snow

I’ll build a man that’s made of snow

I’d love to stay up with you but I recommend a little shuteye

Go to sleep

And dream

Of snow🎶. Irving Berlin

Granny Hat was busy sewing for the most wonderful time of the year when the snow started falling in northwest Montana. It was so gentle and sneaky she didn’t notice until it had completely completely blanketed the patio and tucked her herbs in for the winter.

Her pink California flip flops winked and sparkled at her as Granny was flooded with memories; dreaming of snow, singing about it in choir every fall, opening woolen snow hats, scarves and mittens in brown paper packages tied up with strings. Finally, Granny Hat can wear her snow hats and scarves to truly ward off the bleak midwinter instead of just busting them out on Black Friday to look seasonal for Christmas shopping.

The night before, a great bully of a southwest gale came ripping through the valley, whistling like a runaway engine around the eaves of Granny’s house. Evergreen branches were violently flung across the yard, bird baths toppled and the remaining yellow leaves carried off to the neighboring pine forest. (less yard work for Granny)

There were voices on the wind, sighing, complaining, moaning and groaning. All the weight of the world, the burdens of the year seemed to be riding on that ghost train. Granny tossed and turned.

But when the rails pulled into the station at dawn a soft and gentle passenger alighted. Now Granny sat mesmerized watching the snow drift down, snowflake whispers ‘neath her window, glistening, swirling, dancing. Silent. Peaceful. Snow may be a still small voice, but when it keeps falling, it promises to have a longer lasting impact than the howling wind.

Granny Hat has so much to learn about snow. But here is what she knows so far:

Montana’s snowflakes are Christmas card perfect. Back in her “dreamin’ of a white Christmas” days, Granny’s youngest son would make paper snowflakes to hang in the window on balmy California December days. Granny was surprised to learn that here in the Rockies, snowflakes are truly six sided crystals!

Snow may fall fluffy from the sky like powder but it becomes crunchy overnight. Granny’s neighbors gave her some farm fresh raw milk and beautiful brown eggs. Together with some icy snow, Granny and Dad made ice cream. It tasted heavenly with some hot fudge to warm it up.

Snow is only white until the sun hits it. Then it sparkles with every color of the rainbow and blinds the eyes like a lazer. That soft powder transforms instantly into thousands of faceted mirrors. Granny has to look away, it is too bright, too real. It reminds her of C.S. Lewis’ description of heaven in The Great Divorce:

“It was the light, the grass, the trees that were different; made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country that men were ghosts by comparison.”

Moonlight on snow is the very best street lamp.

Snow is warm! Well….. warmer than NO snow. A snow storm can add up to 20 degrees to the weather forecast.

Rosemary Clooney may have wanted to wash her hair with snow but Granny does NOT recommend this, it is much too cold. Talk about brain freeze! Just enjoy a hot fudge sundae, that will cool her readers off enough.

So, when the weather outside is frightful and Jack Frost nips at your nose, roasting chestnuts on the fire that is so delightful is a lovely idea. 

Snowy days are also good for skiing, for walkin’ in a winter wonderland and for dreaming of sleigh bells in the snow. Snowbirds may fly away on the last warm fall breeze but the magpies and pheasants usually stay home. Bald Eagles soar  where snow has fallen, snow on snow on snow. It is dreaming weather. Who knows, maybe Granny Hat will raise some reindeer out in that back paddock.

Granny Hat’s recommended Snowy Day Playlist:

SNOW by Irving Berlin, from the classic movie White Christmas

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER, beautiful Christina Rosetti poem sung best by Julie Andrews

LET IT SNOW by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, written during a heat wave in Hollywood!

IM DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS  by Irving Berlin, another song written where the palm trees sway just weeks after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Berlin lost a 3 week old son on Christmas Day in 1928 and would visit the infant grave every Dec 25 with his wife. Christmas for him was melancholy, a time for dreaming and hoping

CHRISTMAS DREAMING by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS  by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent, love the version sung by Josh Groban with the voices of armed service personnel overseas during the holidays

SNOWFALL by Claude and Ruth Thornhill, 1941. Sung by Tony Bennett and Granny’s favorite, Manhattan Transfer.

Dear readers, you have some favorites! What are your favorite songs about snow? Are all songs about snow romantic? Why aren’t there any songs about shoveling snow, driving in the snow, getting stuck in the snow………..