Today Mark and I saw the first snow of the season blanketing the ground. Coming from central Texas, I am awed by the delicate beauty of snowflakes. My first winter in Wisconsin 4 years ago gave me more snow than I could ever dream (they say it happens about every 4 years here; it has been four years now since I first came, perhaps this winter will be another one to remember!). It also taught me how to dress for the cold weather: clothing (layering is a must) and down jackets :) The decorative scarves of the south became a necessity along with mittens (not gloves).

Since there was so much snow that first year, I got very interested in snowflakes (the love vs hate approach to dealing with something you can't influence- like the amount of snow I encountered that year). I discovered why the Eskimos have over 30 different names for "snow." Depending on the varying weather conditions (temp, humidity), different types of snowflakes fall. By "types" I mean snowflakes form into different shapes. This lead me to a wonderful site of the Willson A. Bently, The Snowflake Man. To the left is an image of one of the annual pewter snowflakes sold at the Bently site. This year Mark happily surprised me with this beautiful pewter snowflake for our christmas tree. To learn more about how these wonderful beauties are created, I highly recommend Kenneth G. Libbrecht's site.