My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
I took this image last Sunday morning during our little snow storm. We received about 4-5 inches and still have some on the ground as temperatures have been staying cold. Directly behind and across the street is a student housing building where Mugs coffeehouse is located. After my morning mocha I walked over to campus to enjoy the falling snow, to get in a bit of exercise and possibly find an image. I have several images of this bench, finding it’s solitude calling my attention. I cannot remember ever seeing anyone sitting on this bench. However, today it’s pretty obvious why it’s empty.
“If I want to convince someone, I listen attentively first. Even if I am right, he won’t be convinced until he feels heard and respected.”
Haemin Sunim
It is snowing, a light powdery snowfall. I like the quiet a snowfall brings. We have a couple inches right now but could see a total of 4 inches. Some brave soul had been riding their bicycle this morning as the only tracks on the sidewalk were their tire tracks. Snowplows are out. I find it interesting how the city of Fort Collins has small snowplows they use to clean the bike lanes. And, needless to say, it’s pretty quiet in the coffeehouse.
We awoke to light snow yesterday morning then watched it increase to a beautiful winter snowfall. I left home early to find a spot near a window at Mugs coffeehouse to watch it snow. Glad I did. When I left an hour and a half later I walked across the street to the oval on campus for this image. Very few people were out due to the weather and it was Martin Luther King Day so there were almost no tracks in the snow. It stayed cold all day even though the sun came out in the afternoon. It was 2 degrees at 6:30 this morning. Brrrr!
The Cottonwood Tree on Fischer Nature TrailPicnic Tables at Rowland Moore ParkTree Damage at CSU Campus
It has been snowing for that past 24 hours, a heavy wet spring snow. Schools closed down yesterday afternoon as the snow accumulation was much more than predicted. There was no need or desire to be out in the mess, so yesterday I sat in my condo reading and writing while listening to tree branches snapping and cracking. I took down the soup from the freezer and put it on the stove. Nothing better than a winter storm outside and the smell of soup cooking inside. This storm has brought some heavy damage to our trees.
This morning I ventured to Rowland Moore Park in the interest of seeing how much damage to the trees. I was surprised to see only small to medium branches were broken and no trees down. But, I also could see the amount of snow accumulation on the picnic tables. I read this morning the snow accumulation on Fort Collins was 5 inches. However, I estimated 8 inches at my condo and by looking at this table that seems accurate.
The campus at Colorado State University took some heavy damage. This sidewalk is along Shields Avenue on the west side of campus. I was shocked as I drove along and needed to stop a few images of the damage. In this image you can see multiple tree branches down and one tree completely uprooted and laying in the parking lot. Just around the corner from here was a massive tree that had come done and was on top a someones car. They are not going to be happy. 🙁
A quiet winter snowfall is quiet for a couple of reasons. First snow does not reflect sound well, it absorbs it so that much of what you would normally hear is muffled. The pores in the snow cover are responsible for the quiet conditions. When acoustic waves travel horizontally above the snow, the increased pressure of the wave momentarily pushes some air into the pores. This air returns to the atmosphere after the wave passes, but some energy has been lost from friction and thermal effects. Over a short distance, this mechanism can significantly reduce the sound energy in the acoustic wave. Secondly, most animals seek shelter when it snows and therefore there are many less bird sounds immediately after a snow storm. I guess you could include a third reason, most people stay inside when it snows.
