Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Mountain Daydreaming

Swiss mountain collage
We haven't reached Thanksgiving yet, and already I'm obsessed with...no, not Christmas, though it is looming around the corner shaking its bells and holly at me like a merry bogeyman. I'm obsessed with acronyms like NAO and AO and whether or not they are going to be negative or positive and will we or won't we get that very much needed precipitation that could turn to - snow.

Snow in the mountains, for sledding, snowmen, cross country skiing. Snow for getting us out of the house and into that peculiar crystalline world we make our way through at top speed or slow, measured tread.

My sister and I are sifting through snow news right now. Trading 10 day weather reports, and articles summarizing the European winter forecast. I've caught myself humming our sacred snow song** from high school. (One that never worked, I should add, but we were in South Carolina.) Even James has caught the snow bug. "Snow?" he asks each morning as he snuggles up to check the weather with me. "Just a cyoud Mami. Ok."

Right now the mountains we visit most are barely dusted in snow, and almost as dry as they look in today's collage, though much colder. These pictures are from a late August trip to Switzerland. The weather was dry and hot, the opposite of what we're hoping for this winter. The mountains that day had a daydreamy, end of the season feeling to them, as if they too were paused, waiting for the new season to begin.

Are you ready for snow? Or do you prefer dry and hot, thanks very much?

* NAO = North Atlantic Oscillation, AO = Arctic Oscillation
** Snow, snow when are you falling

8 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

You're breaking my heart with that talk about snow and mountains. But I wish you well as I'm comforted by Fritz Wunderlich doing "Dies Bildniss... " I didn't think I could word-process as words came through the loudspeakers. But it seems I can.

Julia said...

Clicking over to YouTube to listen to Wunderlich now. By the way, do you have to listen to the same music on repeat? That's the only way I can write to music with lyrics or my writing tone changes too much.

(All cross country you know, nothing downhill except sledding!)

Anonymous said...

If it's going to be cold, I'd just as soon have snow because it's pretty to look at!

Roderick Robinson said...

Some things I repeat endlessly (Thomas Allen: Did you not hear my lady? Robert Tear: Tom Bowling. Doris Day (acc. Andre Previn): Fools rush in.) to the point where Mrs BB, in the next room, complains. Others as they come.

One thing I have blogged about. As I get older I feel myself more and more susceptible to the emotional appeal of music - good music, that is. Sometimes close to tears. If I'm writing at the same time this converts into a sense of well-being from which I extract greater confidence in what I'm doing. I suspect that someone with professional training like you is more likely to retain objectivity. But in any case you're nobbut a lass.

Ellen said...

They moved the reported possibility of rain/snow report yet ANOTHER day away (10). No one remembers such a dry Autumn in the Alps..

Mary said...

Switzerland - summer + bucket list.

You could make a calendar you know from all your beautiful photos ..

Ellen said...

Do promise that I'm humming THE song every day now...

Ellen said...

Now 3 days of some sort of precipitation on the 10 day calendar!