This is not the first April morning I have awoken to see snow on the ground, and I don't expect it to be the last. As tempting as the idea of 'move where it never snows' is, the reality is that I'm a Northern girl with ice crystals in my blood, and the tradeoff of Summer's heat would likely be a big challenge to overcome in return for mild winters. After such a mild winter as we have had in Ohio, this seems like a bit of a pay back for the relative ease we've enjoyed. Nature comes to a balance, always.
It's been a funny spring. Cold, rainy, sleety, snowy. It seems like every day I have time to venture out for photos of flowers and things, it's miserable, and there's only so much I'm willing to suffer for my art. Today or tomorrow I'd hoped to take a trip to the Arboretum near Dayton and see if I could find Bloodroot in bloom. I no longer have a life-list but there are still plants I want to see. Unfortunately, this snowy morning has likely nixed that plan for another year. If I'm here next spring.
Life is always changing. I was talking to my daughter about this last night. She is on the brink of a transition, from Middle School to High School. She was sad that she was going to leave a favorite teacher behind even though she knew she wouldn't have her for another class even if she stayed in that school. We talked about life, and the marks people make on us as we encounter them, and the memories we carry onward when life changes and we drift apart again. The snow falls, and melts, and returns again as rain. Life carries us downstream and there is no rowing against the current.
We can stay in touch, to some extent. I may be miles from my children, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we are never apart for long. My own mother is thousands of miles away but also as close as picking up the phone or a message to chat. I've reconnected with some people I thought long vanished into the rolling boil of life's cauldron. Even in the few years of school I have made friends and mislaid them again. Social media can be a total pain in the whatever but it's also a nifty way to keep a tenuous thread of connection.
Which brings me back to the snow, sort of. This morning I've been chatting online with friends for states around, talking about the snow, the impact it will have on gardens and trips. The First Reader and I have put off our planned grocery trip until later today - we must go out, we're out of bread and milk - so I'm curled up in my desk chair, mostly warm and watching my bird feeders. I put seed out, because of the snow, even though I usually stop feeding in the spring. I've completed my obligation at the Mad Genius Club with another post on toxicology and serology, and I'm downloading data files on the Human Microbiome to analyze. I'm working on a big project comparing the discrete and disparate commensal communities found in human saliva and stools with a partner. I will be analyzing stools while he gets the spit. Whee... Fortunately data isn't stinky.
And on that note, I think I'd better get moving and bake something. The house isn't cold, but looking out at the snow makes me feel cold, and I owe you all an ETWYRT post since I skipped it Wednesday! I'll have a lovely baked apply thingie tomorrow for you.