Snow… A nice concept

That's what the daughter of LA Times columnist Sandy Banks said, in true Hollywood fashion, about snow after a family trip back east for Christmas.  I, a native Californian, mostly agree. 

You see, most of us here in Southern California don't have the right stuff for snow.  We don't have the right clothes, or shoes, or tires.  Without those things, winter can be downright hazardous. And that bit about bundling up, or even putting on any more protective clothing than flip flops, to do something as simple as picking up the mail is foreign to us.  

The only snow that has attraction to me is freshly fallen, and not too much of it.  Snow that hasn't had a chance to melt and refreeze and become a slip and fall hazard.  Snow like this white Christmas at my in-law's house a few years ago:

I find myself thinking about snow these days.  It has been more than unseasonably warm.  It is usual to have a couple of days of hot, dry winds this time of year.  But this year they have lasted over a week, feeding wild fires that have burned homes and taken lives.  Over a quarter of a million acres have burned so far.  Even from a safe distance, eyes water and it's hard to breathe.  Ash has started falling in flurries like snow.

Snow, or a light rain, or even cooler temperatures and some off-shore breezes would be a welcome miracle right now. 

Winter Nights scarf - woven with snow in mind.