Snow

We had a bit of snow this week. Well, quite a lot for us and the UK in general. Things come to a standstill and people lighten up a bit. We went into Wellington this morning and saw families, children of all ages, toboganning and lots of people walking about and being friendly. It was more than forecast for our area - about 5-6 inches - and near Exeter the A38 was blocked and many people were stranded.
We don't have a lot of snow in the south and west of England so it causes chaos. Canada and Scandinavian countries have plenty of snow and they design and plan things accordingly. In Richmond, Va, as in Cornwall and the rest of the west of England there is panic with a little snow. We lived in Co Durham for 5 years where they are more used to these things and they kept things going in the snow though once I couldn't get to one village when there was about a foot of the white stuff.
We had 3 students from Sierra Leone when I was in college and when the snow came they were so excited. I remember them running out into the car park and trying to catch the falling flakes.
Last evening when the snow was falling we looked out of the bedroom window and although it was obviously cloudy the area was quite well lit instead of being pitch dark in places away from the street lights. Perhaps the light is reflected from the low clouds and/or possibly dispersed by the snow flakes. It illuminated the area like very bright moonlight.
I think I read somewhere that all rain actually starts off as snow so in these conditions it just stays as snow.
Snow is beautifully white until it starts to get slushy and people and cars churn it up.
Of course snow is but a form of that most amazing substance, water. For all that water is so common and we all know that it is H2O in fact is structure and how it works is still not properly understood. It is so important for life and has several unusual properties - high surface tension, high boiling point for a molecule of it's size etc. I, and many others, regard all this as the work of the creator and give praise that such an amazing substance has been invented, developed and no doubt has some properties that have not been fully realised yet.
Snow on great mountains provides a slow release supply of water.
Now the sun is setting, with yellow glistening light on icy patches on the road outside.