Black, White, Cold

It snowed in Joplin, Missouri, Saturday. Here's a view of Shoal Creek from Wildcat Park.



I'd carpooled to Joplin from Hutchinson with Patsy, who took some of her own pictures.



Initially I'd hoped to get one of those photos in which snow makes things look ironic, or in which defiant life pops from the frozen stuff, but these suffering yellow flowers were the best I could do.



So we headed to the Reddings Mill and Wildcat Park area of Shoal Creek, looking for large-scale vistas to show off the copious amount of snow being driven by the wind. This is the old Reddings Mill bridge, now part of the the Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center walking trail.






Even subtle colors like that of this stone stand out in the mono color landscape of dark tree trunks and snow.






And here's a video.



Black and white and red



The mailboxes of the Reddings Mill community make me appreciate to-the-porch mail delivery.



Patsy shot this photo of me; My teeth are literally chattering. Ahh, but I should savor it. Soon, there'll be no snow for months. Puffy crystals will be replaced by gnats, and shivers with sweat.

It's a trade of pleasure for pleasure, I suppose. This morning I appreciated the soft thud of the Joplin Globe on my mom's snow-covered driveway, and this summer - "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise" - I'll visit and bask in the song of cicadas that now wait under the snowy ground.