Snowflakes

My lovely friend Joan gave me a beautiful, simply and elegantly designed silver snowflake pin this week. I wore it on my thick red sweater today in celebration of our first big snow of the season.  It's January 12 and the weather is finally reflecting it in Wisconsin.  While many of us have enjoyed the reprieve from the typical snow and cold, I have to admit that I looked out on the landscape this morning with awe and appreciation.  The light coat of snow was falling gently as I looked out our bedroom window, delicately covering the thick boughs of a large evergreen in our backyard.  Everything looked crisp and clean and quiet in its new white blanket.  Despite the somewhat treacherous driving conditions, people I encountered seemed downright joyful to finally have a snowy landscape.  We Wisconsinites are a resilient sort, almost bragging that we can survive the extremes of our weather, particularly the often tough winters.  Recent winters have been quite extreme with upwards to 100 inches of snow per year, so we acted as if today's weather was a mere inconvenience.  It was a beautiful day and I couldn't help but keep one eye out any available window to admire the loveliness of the new snow.