Old snow

Old snow. It is said that people living in the far north have a thousand words to describe snow and ice in their many forms. I don't have that many words!

This is what we locally call a snow bank - the piles of snow that are made when we shovel the snow off the sidewalks and drives gets piled into heaps running along the walk. I don't know why we don't call them snow piles or snow heaps, but it's been snow banks as long as I can remember.

There are some snow banks that are very tall - places like parking lots use heave machines like bucket loaders to heap the snow in one corner. As children, we'd play 'king of the mountain' and try to be the only one standing on top. By pushing the others off, of course!

Anyway, this particular snow bank is old. It used to be completely smooth, but the sun and the wind and the warm weather have sculpted it into weird shapes. (Yes, I'm calling 35F warm!) As the snow gets older, it gets darker, as all the white snow disappears, revealing the tiny layers of trapped dust underneath. Strangely enough, it's easier to photograph old snow because of this darkening effect.