Thursday, February 13, 2014

Home again

We drove home last week, coming up from Lower Alabama where it was supposed to be warm (hah!) to New Jersey, where it was not supposed to be exactly warm but was supposed to be warmer than it has been. Despite the miserable weather that swept through much of the Southeast during January, we didn’t see any significant snow cover until we drove into Pennsylvania. Who knew snowstorms - or perhaps warm spells - recognized State lines?

In Pennsylvania the snow cover was solid: roadsides, yards, and fields all white. Instead of the lovely drifts and curves of a simple snowstorm, though, the ground was a solid, level, shiny sheet of white: a thick layer of ice over an even thicker layer of snow. Beautiful but oddly frightening, like driving through a cross between Antarctica and a glacier. 

Once we turned east toward New Jersey we started seeing some trees still sheathed in ice. Since it was a gorgeous, cloudless day, they sparkled in the sun like crystal sculptures. Once over the Delaware River and into the home stretch, we saw whole groves of ice trees - breathtakingly beautiful. And where the mountains had been cut through for the road, rock walls were covered in icefalls. In one pass, the water had run over the graffiti that tags the rock and taken some of the paint with it so the icefalls had streaks of pink and blue and orange and green. Winter can make almost anything a work of art.

When we got home, we discovered that our neighbors had not only shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house, they had also shoveled our walkway up to the front door and enough of the driveway so we could get the gate open and pull the car off the street. I gifted them with home-made vegetable soup as a wholly inadequate thank-you and plan to go on so gifting them through the winter. The debt to them is so deep I may have to continue through the summer; I hope they like gazpacho.

7 comments:

DL Sly said...

What!? No pix?? For shame! To speak of such beauty and not share.
Bout time you drug your butt back home.
heh
0>;~}

E Hines said...

Welcome back. I hope the trip went well, and I'm glad you're back safe.

I've missed sparring....

Eric Hines

Elise said...

DL Sly, this was the third day of a three-day trip and by that time bathroom breaks were the only stops either of us were willing to make. I should figure out how to post pictures, though - my husband is a talented photographer and has some deadly but gorgeous pix from earlier winters.

Eric, trip did go well - we're talking seriously about moving South and the current weather around here is making that sound very appealing. As for sparring, we'll see how much energy I have for blogging. :+)

E Hines said...

You're always welcome in Texas, Ma'am.

Eric Hines

Elise said...

Hmm, very odd. I posted a response to Eric's last comment and it's nowhere to be seen. So..

Thank you for the invite. I do have ties to Texas - my father was from there and I went to college and grad school there. But my brother and my best friend and the land that came down from my grandparents are all in Alabama so that's where we're headed. Eventually. Or perhaps after the next snowstorm.

E Hines said...

Well, there are worse places to be. Illinois, for instance, where I grew up.

And you're still welcome in Texas, even if it's only to visit from Alabama.

Eric Hines

Elise said...

Hmm. Neither New Jersey nor Alabama is a bad place to be. In fact, NJ (usually) has almost perfect weather if you like actual seasons. Winters just long enough and hard enough to make Spring a delight. Summers just long enough and hot enough to make Fall a relief. And long, long Springs and Falls. Sigh. I miss the weather already and I haven't even left yet.