The snow is so beautiful.................

I love the look of snow. No so much the reality of it. When I worked I really didn't like it at all. The roads around here can be treacherous, it is after all Michigan. We live in the great white north.

Well there is Canada further north but they don't get much more snow than we do, it lasts a little longer maybe but we have our share. I remember when we first came here, some winters were 6 months long to me. I mean, when it snows in October and lasts till April thats pretty long. I am counting flurries and not deep snow but back then I could not get over it..............I would call mum,"hey we are in the Upper Peninsula in September and I saw snow in the rain." ......we would get Indian Summer but still we knew what was coming.

It took a long time for me to get used to it. When I turned 40 I got a horse. Well, that was great in summer (another story) but once that snow started to come down and I had a 20+ mile drive it was a bit dodgy. I do remember one evening when my friend Mary (was driving) we got almost to the barn and there was a tree across the road. There we were in a blizzard trying to move the dang thing. Well some guy stopped in a big truck and pushed it away far enough so we could get by and the barn was just down the road from there. We went thankfully into he barn, gave our horses carrots and apples, made sure they were snug and comfy and headed home. By then the guy had that tree all cut up and stacked by the road. It was a small tree.

At first I loved the snow I had fun blasting through drifts, wooooo hooooo and was not afraid at all. Then one day coming down a hill I lost control. That did it. From then on I really did not care to drive in the snow. Its all about the what if's....well sometimes "What if" can keep you safe. So I was more cautious after that. There were many times over the years when Mary and I would take a quick trip out to the barn, bring in all the horses because no one was there and set them all inside in the warm. Then leave and start home again. We got in some pickles out there, that much I can say. We rode out in the snow back in those days. The horses loved it. Then one day coming back Lady and I got out onto a sheet of ice. She froze, I was scared witless. I was afraid she would fall and break a leg (to say nothing of me) so I let go of the reins, let her figure it out and stayed as still as I could as she picked her way over the ice. My heart thumping. The other two, Mary and her son, they found a way around it after we made if over. She was a good old girl that horse.

It was that same ride that earlier Mary fell off. Mark and I were out ahead chatting. Mary was riding our shared horse named Spyder. Well Spyder was a slow poke and they were hanging back. Mark and I were side by side and rounded a corner in the woods. All of a sudden Spyder with Mary clinging to his side came bounding around the corner. We stopped and watched as in what seemed like slow motion Mary ever so gracefully got lower and lower on his side until she plopped off into the snow bank. Spyder stopped and munched on a branch. Now I would have thought that Mark would have stopped and helped his mum but nope, he just carried on as she dusted herself off and clambered back onto good old Spyder. Not a word was said.

Well winter holds its wonders, it is not all bad and it is certainly beautiful. It's just so dang long