It fell softly this cold January morning.
Little bits of snow surrounded by ice crystals.
Snow pellets I call them.
They landed on my garden bench.
They fell on the window of my car.
A little acorn collected them in its bowl.
They were caught in silky spider webs.
Little bits of crystal wonder.
After I came in to warm up I did a little research on snow pellets. They are called graupel. They form when snow passes through cool water in the atmosphere. Ice crystals form instantly around the outside of the snow. They are also called soft hail or tapioca snow. Tapioca snow sounds much better than graupel to me.
Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silver-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~ Bill Morgan, Jr.
I like the expression 'tapioca snow' too! That's exactly what it looks like and we had them last week as well! I was fascinated by the way they fell from the sky and bounced off my plum-coloured coat! I love your shots of these tiny balls, especially in the acorn bowl and in the spiders' webs!
ReplyDeleteAwesome abstracts! I like snow pellets better than 'graupel'. That sounds like something nasty to eat.
ReplyDeleteGraupel is a favorite word of my best friend and me. We are ecstatic if we can use it! Your photos are so crisp, they really convey the icy beauty of the little pellets. I sometimes think of them as styrofoam snow.
ReplyDeleteI love the little acorn holding it's precious contents. The 'tapioca snow' sounds good to me. We had a dusting yesterday but it didn't last but a few minutes....
ReplyDeleteCathy, this feels magical and you've captured the sense of it perfectly!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. I did not know that and I know we have had graupel before. Now we just have plain old snow.
ReplyDeleteI never heard that word, but your photos are incredible, Cathy!
ReplyDeleteMy mom recently introduced me to this word that I had never heard before. She had to do what you did, research until she found that strange word graupel. In spite of the funny name, your photos are absolutely gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteinteresting information, i had no idea!!! thank you for braving the cold to bring us such amazing images. i am still waiting, fingers crossed for saturday!!!!
ReplyDeleteReally like that pattern on the second image a lot. Yes I knew about graupel as if we ever get snow here in Phoenix that is what it is called.
ReplyDeleteboy that second image is really spectacular!!!!!
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