Living
Al Brown | Tracking the Seasons
Sun, wind, earth and snow
Looking north down the driveway, something was missing. TV weathermen had warned about it, as did the National Weather Service out of Sullivan.
The 6 inches of powdery snow that fell last Wednesday and Thursday, which I blew off on Friday, should have been back in my driveway by Saturday morning.
It wasn't!
In fact, I could now see more of the blacktop driveway than I could when I first finished clearing the snow the day before, thanks in part to the freeze-drying effects of the subzero cold that had settled in.
But that wasn't what caught my attention. Instead, it was what I couldn't see or feel that I noticed most. It was the absence of wind and the sight of freshly drifted snow clogging my driveway.
That invisible, odorless, tasteless, intangible movement of air which, at the bidding of our sun, becomes the elemental authority over our earth.
We can't actually see the wind, only what it moves: clouds, sails, kites, trees, waving fields of grain, smoke, buildings, columns of water and pollen.
We don't really smell or taste the wind either. What we do smell and taste are the particulates it lifts and carries as it moves over the landscape.
In truth we don't really hear the wind either. What we do hear are the sounds of objects reacting (vibrating) to the presence of wind: windows rattling, sirens sounding, people speaking, birds singing and dogs barking.
It has been said that wind farms harness the wind, but that's not exactly true. Unlike the horse, which is fed and harnessed by his human master, the wind's master is our sun. It heats the air during the daytime, making it lighter, allowing it to rise and move about.
By the same token, the setting sun will cause the air to cool and become heavier, allowing air currents become calmer.
In the early spring, the warming sun causes the March winds to buffet the ice-bound lakes until they break up. Then the winds will stir fresh oxygen into the waters, and life will begin anew.
As spring moves into summer, the warm winds will do what the bees cannot by shaking free and carrying the pollen needed to make things grow once the winds bring spring rains.
Summer winds are for lovers and small boys with kites, hang gliders and sail boaters, sun bathing, tending gardens and relaxing in the shade.
Autumn winds create a different sound, one of change and urgency. A cold tune as they move through the drying leaves of colorful fall. Often cool and foreboding of what lies ahead.
Once the winter winds join with the cold and wraps the countryside in a blanket of white, like it is now, life in general can quickly become a chilling challenge.
But waking up in the morning to see that the winds had not blown the snow back in the driveway was a gift from heaven.
Hopefully, spring will come early this year.
- Hunters and mentors
- Don't know what you've got …
- Survival of the fittest
- If you can't stand the heat …
- Let's talk turkey
- Inclement weather!
- Snowmobiling and driving - not a good mix
- Survival of the fittest? Or survival of the doe?
- Don't worry, I've got your 'beak'
- The year that was
- Hey Santa: From crimson red to blaze orange
- Where are all the deer?
- Late freeze extends muskie season
- The smell of failure didn't last long
- Happy hunting!
- Bucks come a running
- Confused in more ways than one
- Confused in more ways than one
- Ready ... Set ... Fire
- Sit back and relax - for now
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