Snow Day

Feb 2

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?”

J.B. Priestley

Last Sunday, I anxiously watched the weather app radar. Massive swaths of purple covered the island. This was good. Snow was coming. It had to come. Scrolling through my feed, friends to the West were displaying their morning adventures in the snow. It was only a matter of time now.

And then it happened. Small and delicate, snow began to lightly fall. I admit, I was disappointed at first. Why wasn’t the snow falling faster? As if summoning a shift, big fluffy flakes danced wildly, like we were inside a snow globe that had been shaken.

Emerging outside, the whirling snow is all at once invigorating and disorienting as I walk out into the freezing air. The rush of cold to my head is stimulating and energizing. Boots crunching on fresh snow, ears tingling and nose burning, the kids and I discovered a landscape transformed. We’ve been sequestered to this plot of countryside for endless weeks. For a moment, time stood still and we were given a new space to discover. Viruses and lockdowns were given a back seat to snowball fights and sledding through the orchard. As the daylight turned its dial down, we trudged home wet, frozen & exhausted. The remedy for such a state: a night by our cozy fire.

“Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder--no matter how old you became and how much you'd seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.”
Candace Bushnel

The below images were taken mid January when we had a light dusting of snow. I sensed the Burghley House parkland would look otherworldly. I am glad I acted on my instinct. As I approached the estate, I was thrilled to see the grand house with a gentle blanket of white wrapped around the landscape. Nothing short of magical.