London Journal - Snow

An interesting observation about flash in the dark across a wide open space.

First photo: With Flash

Second Photo: Without Flash

The snow which had been predicted for days finally fell today. The flakes are fat, sticky clumps of ice drifting down in a mad dance. It's the sort of snow Calgary rarely gets because the climate is so dry. It's the very best sort of snow though because it's the sort that can be used to make snowmen and forts. It can be sculpted and played with and when it dumps on Calgary it usually means a snow day.

Despite falling almost constantly today in London, the snow has barely stuck. All day I watched it twirling down. Sometimes it would be a mad flurry of flakes, so thick they obscured the Thames from view. Other times it was lighter, sometimes so light that one could only see it by pausing and staring at a single spot for a moment or two.

As I walked to the tube the flakes came down in a billowing cloud. They stuck to my glasses and cheeks, leaving cold droplets of water as they melted. For the first time this year the familiar warm glow of Christmas began to fill me, starting in my chilly toes. I emerged from the tube and as I turned up the road leading to my home I had to walk stiff legged. Here the snow had definitely stuck and the slush under foot made the pavement treacherous. The whirling fat flakes kept falling and I tilted my head back, catching them on my tongue.

There is so much beauty in a London snowfall.