Snow Scenes - Real and Imagined

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder. ~Susan Orlean

Kentucky winters are unpredictable. We might have snow. We might not. When my oldest son was six, he got a sled for Christmas. We did not have sledding snow for years. Then the year he was eleven the heavens opened and we had piles and piles of snow. And some ice. He stayed out sledding for hours. It's a wonder he didn't have frostbite. Three winters in a row we had major snow and cold. 

At that time we were the only people who lived back our little lane that had high banks on both sides of it. The snow drifted solid as high as those banks and there was no way we were going to get out that road. My husband pulled the car out through the pasture field with his tractor. Then every morning he'd ride the tractor out to the main road, get the car and go to work. He brought in the groceries too. That year nobody actually drove up our lane until the middle of March when I had a family birthday party for my daughter. My brother-in-law had a big four-wheel drive truck and he "broke" the road. The kids and I stayed home except when we walked to my parents' house down the road. And of course, the kids played in the snow. They would take their little brother out and then he'd get stuck in the snow drifts and they'd have to lift him out. But he loved it too.

I remember three and four-week long snow days, and drifts so deep a small child, namely me, could get lost in them. No such winter exists in the record, but that's how Ohio winters seemed to me when I was little - silent, silver, endless, and dreamy. ~Susan Orlean

I don't know how long the kids were out of school, but it seemed like three and four week snow days. We could have had cabin fever. I'm sure we did have cabin fever. But now, I don't remember that. I remember eating a lot of popcorn and hot chocolate. I remember reading the Lord of the Ring books. The two older kids read them too. I remember card games and fires in the wood stove. And I do have to admit I remember being glad when the kids went back to school so I'd have more writing time again. 

The snow this winter isn't nearly that deep. No drifts over the fence posts. But it has been very cold so the snow we did get is staying around. I like walking in the snow and I like taking snow pictures. And sometimes I write snow scenes in my stories. 

"I'm working on a snow scene right now, and it's summer. It's hot, and I will get chilly. I'll have to turn on the heat. My wife walks in, and it's 95 degrees in the studio. I know it's nutty, but it's a projection you have where you step into the painting." ~Thomas Kinkade

I understand that. The same as he is with the painting, sometimes I get so deep in my story that I can almost feel the snow and ice in my face as I write. I heard the ice hitting the cabin windows and breaking down the army tents in Christmas at Harmony Hill. I was with Hannah in The Believer as she defiantly made snow angels at the Shaker village. I was driving through the snow with David and Leigh as they stepped closer to love in Summer of Joy. The same can be true with hot weather scenes, so I guess right now I need to be writing about summertime to keep me warm. 

Hope you stay warm and enjoy the snow if you have it in your world. I always think about leaving a lot of happy tracks when I walk in the snow. That's what the dogs and I did today because snow can be fun. Just ask a boy with a sled. 

What do you like about snow days? Or do you get cabin fever?

Snow Cream in the Forecast

" Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."  (John Ruskin) 

Snow is in the forecast for the first time here in 2012. We saw a few snowflakes in December, and this forecast is not calling for much snow either. That's okay with me. We got enough snow the last couple of winters to scratch my snow itch for awhile. The picture is from a January snow in 2010. That one piled it up on us. I don't mind a little snow, maybe one good snow a year as long as it doesn't stick around long. Then I tend to agree with this Carl Reiner quote. " Some people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water."

But I know plenty of people get excited by the prospect of snow. There are some things that you can't do without a little snow. Go sledding for one. When my oldest was six he got a sled for Christmas. It didn't snow more than a skiff for three or four years, but then we had three major snow winters in a row. He would stay out in the snow for hours. I thought he would have frostbite, but he just had fun. And you can't make a snowman without a good snow or dig out a snow fort and have a snowball fight. No snow means no days off from school. All kids need a few of those. And you can't make snow cream. 

That leads me to one of the Christmas memories sent in by a reader. So if you're in snow country and you've ever wanted an actual recipe to make snow cream, here it is from Virginia. Here's her story.

My grandmother was 'the greatest cook ever' and used to make delicious snow ice cream. Fresh clean snow (yes, it was cleaner in the " good olde days", ) whole milk or cream, sugar, and vanilla. For some reason, I crave ice cream in the Winter--maybe because of Gran's "Snow Cream". One of my mother's favorite holiday treats from her childhood was "' boiled custard"  (which you must not allow to boil). A rich, cooked drink similar to eggnog, boiled custard is actually a custard which is thin enough to drink from a cup. My grandmother used to make it and pour it into glass jars which she would set down outside in the snow to cool. Mom and her brother and sister would drink it outside straight from the jar and then get "switched"   by Gran for stealing the family treat!

Fresh Snow Ice Cream

1 small pkg. regular (not instant) vanilla pudding mix

1 cup sugar

1/2 milk

1 pint cream

2 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 to 2 gallons fresh, clean snow

In an extra-large, heavy mixing bowl, combine pudding mix and sugar. Stir in milk and blend until dry ingredients are dissolved. Blend in cream, vanilla extract, and nutmeg. Cover and chill until ready to serve ice cream. To make ice cream: Stir mixture well and add in enough snow to make desired consistency. Do not over-stir. Serve immediately. 

Thanks, Virginia, for sharing your story and your grandmother's recipe. So if you have a heaping bowl of clean snow - actually, the fun spoilers, er, I mean the experts, tell us that no snow is clean enough anymore, but it's still fun to think about snow cream. 


Have you ever eaten snow cream? Let us know if you liked it. My mom used to make it sometimes too, but these days I just eat my snow sugar free and wait for summertime to make the real stuff by salting down some ice in an ice cream freezer and churning away.

Thanks for reading. Now to get back to those edits on my next Shaker novel. Maybe that's what I'll talk about Sunday.

Bumpy Sledding and Writing

Hope all of you had a very good Wednesday. Halfway through the work week and on the downhill slide to Friday. I often wish I had an extra day especially when I'm getting started on a new book. Of course I took today off to spend a snow day with a couple of my grandkids. We haven't had a lot of snow, just flurries spread out over several days that has kept a skiff of snow on the ground. My daughter-in-law said it was like we were in a giant snow globe that somebody kept turning over to make it snow. Anyway, the little snow we had is almost gone except in the shade, but with those plastic smooth bottomed sleds, you can still do some sledding even when the snow is disappearing. So we walked all over the farm looking for enough snow cover to take a ride downhill. The two and a half year old was quite happy to let me pull her down those hills and then back up. Needless to say, this gramma is dragging tonight after a lot of trips up and down. At least I was smart enough to pick very short hills. The nine year old just had fun sliding although he did admit that the frozen ground with only a bare skiff of snow made for some pretty bumpy sledding.

I'm feeling as if I'm having some "bumpy sledding" as I try to get my new story off the ground, but I'm hanging on and absorbing the bumps because I think the story is there. I just have to find the best way to tell it. So here are some quotes to encourage you if you're a writer and help you understand some of what writers struggle with if you're a reader.

• A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right. --John K. Hutchens (A woman alone in a room, too. I do work much better when I'm alone.)
• Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself-it is the occurring which is difficult. -Stephen Leacock
• I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension. -Norman Mailer (I couldn't agree more. I simply cannot talk about my story in progress. One author I read suggested that if a writer tells her story, there's no need for her to write it.)
• Make 'em laugh; make 'em cry; make 'em wait. - Charles Reade

That last one is advice I want to follow. I think I'll write those words in red on my desk calendar where I can see it every day when I start writing. I'll put it right beside the Proverb about how laughter works good for us like a medicine. Hope you have good days and good nights along with much laughter and good stories.