First Snow

Raine Myers, 21 months old, experienced her first snow yesterday at Shallowford Square.

When I opened the blinds yesterday morning, I was stunned to see the beautiful white blanket of snow lightly covering the yard. The first snow of the season!

Unfortunately, I’d pulled a late-nighter the night before, and I didn’t rise as early as I normally do. As I surveyed the beautiful scene outside my window, my mind was saying, “Wow!” But my body was saying, “No! Please don’t make me go out into the cold and take photos this morning!”

After a brief period of internal skirmishing, my mind won out. Considering how tired I felt, that was a pretty amazing victory. With that battle settled, though, there was another problem.

It was already eight o’clock, and the bright sun was beginning to melt away the beautiful snow. With fierce urgency, I went into warp drive — grabbing memory cards, selecting lenses, throwing on long underwear, and donning hat, coat and photo vest. In a flash, I was out the door.

Since time was precious — I could almost feel the snow melting — I decided I’d concentrate my first snow shots of the season on Shallowford Square.

First Stop, Shallowford Square

Some would say this was the perfect snow: It didn’t stick to the roads, yet covered everything else, and it would be gone quickly. That’s exactly what was happening at Shallowford Square, too. Except for the sidewalks, everything else was lightly covered with snow, and it was in the process of melting.

As I began exploring the Square, I was tempted to chide myself for not getting out sooner. Then, I was tempted to compare the meager dusting of snow to some immense imaginary snow scene that might have been. True, yesterday’s snow wasn’t exactly the “snow scene of the century” — not by a long shot — but it was, nevertheless, a thing of beauty.

Rather than focusing on what I’d already missed by not getting up and out sooner, or on how I wished the scene looked, I decided to be content with capturing the scene as it was at that moment and to enjoy its unique, subtle beauty.

It’s amazing what you’ll see when you decide to accept things as they are, and not dwell on how they might have been.

If you’d like to see a few shots of Shallowford Square with its first snow of the season, please visit the Shallowford Square photo gallery.

Snow and Raine

I wasn’t alone at Shallowford Square, though. I soon came upon the Myers family, who had driven over from Huntsville, which is just across the Yadkin River. Dana Myers had received a call from her mother, who was on her way to work, about how beautiful the snow was in Lewisville.

So Dana and her husband, Matthew, took the short drive to Shallowford Square to introduce their beautiful little daughter, Raine, to her first snow. When I saw them, they were in the playground area of the Square.

Little Raine, who is 21 months old, managed to enjoy the snow, despite my sudden presence and my incessant picture taking! I think it’s accurate to say that we all enjoyed the snow yesterday morning!

Take a look at photos of the Myers family, but mostly of Raine, enjoying Lewisville’s first snow of the season.