My Mama Told Me It Would Be Like This

New snow on the maple tree outside our front step.

I was born in a small town in the center of Oregon. All around me there were beautiful mountains and my mama told me, in the winter, snow fell around our home. Lots of snow. Deep snow. And it was the most glorious feeling to run and roll and dig and leap through the blankets of white.

I was young and had no idea what snow was, but I believed my mama and dreamed one day that I'd know snow in the way she described. Then I was adopted by my new family and they took me north to the sea. When I left home, my mama told me that I may never see the kind of snow they had where I was born and I was sad because I really wanted to know snow the way my mama talked about it.

As a pup, I got to go to the mountains around my new home and more than once, traveled over those mountains to spend long winter days playing in the snow while my new family skied. I got to know what snow was and grew to love it more than I ever imagined. But still, I wanted "home snow" as I'd come to call it -- snow that feel by my house, on my street, and in my neighborhood.

This year, I got my wish. Snow fell and snow is still falling, much to the displeasure of some humans in my life. Still, we've skied, we've walked, we've played odd games of fetch-the-frisbee under the snow bank. Ice balls have formed on my legs more times than I can count and I've buried my head as deep as it will go into large, fluffy piles of the white stuff.

This is what my mama was talking about...
This morning, more snow is falling. We already have about 8 inches on the ground and they predict up to another 6 by this afternoon. Mama Ann goes out in it often to shake the snow from the bamboo plants. This morning she did so in her pajamas and I watched.
She's used to snow since she grew up in a place like where I was born -- known for its snow. Still, you'd think she'd change out of her pajamas.This is our street. Most of the cars were cleared of snow last night as many of our neighbors went out yesterday. So, the snow you see on their cars fell just this morning. In her pajamas still, Mama Ann went out and shoveled the walkway.
My mom told me that snow was wonderful, but she never told me that my new family would become oddballs in the snow.More photos later...we're getting ready to go outside soon! Yippee!