Frost and snow; in their beautiful and cold reality they differ completely from commercialized versions in plastic or cotton for people in milder climes. Some countries have winters of solid cold but where I live the weather is ever-shifting, reliable only in its complete lack of reliability. Cold air from Siberia will meet mild air from the Atlantic and the temperature may change within a couple of days from freezing cold to thawing wet and then back to cold again.

When temperature first falls below the freezing-point of water:

                    Frozen dew
                    on fallen leaves,
                    not a flake of snow

This is black frost.

                    Frost at night,
                    the moss in the shadow
                    still stiff with white

Even the sense of touch is involved.

                    Sunbeams
                    on frosted grasses
                    crystal reflections

There will be miniature rainbows in the direct light.

Then the first snow:

                    Virgin snow –
                    trampled on the pavement
                    to icy ridges

Just a few feet on the soft cover of the soil and it changes completely, particularly in the city.

                    Hard trampled snow,
                    a white poodle carried
                    high on a shoulder

Neither animal nor owner well at ease after huge snowfalls in the city.

There are many ways to see shades and colours in the whitenesses of snow.

                    Rising sun,
                    light on snowy branches
                    beyond snow shadow

This was seen from a west-looking window, with shadow on most of the gardens.

In memory, summer is never completely absent, as long as there is a name for the bushes.

                    Mock-orange,
                    bare branches bending
                    with clusters of snow

Another kind of blossom than that of mid-summer when it turns the dusk into whiteness.

                    Bowed to the ground
                    by its burden of snow,
                    this lilac bush

It is huge, with white flowers in late spring. Its time of fragrance seems very far off now…

Darkness falls in the early afternoon so there is much time to observe the effects of artificial light as well.

                    Lamp-lit night –
                    glittering stars in the snow,
                    in the sky

Scattered over the white ground snow, crystals look like stars when struck by light; formerly, often compared to diamonds.

From November, garlands of light celebrate the commercial season rather than the old religious mid-winter festival.

                    Christmas card –
                    not Mary’s child any more
                    but their own

The nuclear family takes over from The Holy Family. Well, rather family photos than such religious pictures that are ugly to the point of blasphemy.

                    White Christmas –
                    ten inches of snow
                    to shovel by hand

Further to the North, this would be true any year. Here this happens only occasionally, always to the great surprise of everybody responsible for roads and railways that are blocked by snowfall.

                    Such a post-card view –
                    as long as you don’t
                    have to shovel the snow

Yes, we tend to be ambivalent in our attitudes to winter snow and a white Christmas.

                    From 0 celsius
                    down to 0 fahrenheit,
                    a deep-freeze fall

It seems strange that such a scientific society as ours cannot agree on how to express basic measures. Celsius chose the freezing-point of water for his 0. Fahrenheit chose a cold that, to him, must have seemed an excessive temperature for living people.

                    Faded carnations
                    thrown out through the window –
                    heads up in a snow-drift

To a garden owner, it would seem a shameful waste of plant material to throw them in the refuse bucket. As for carnations, they seem to be the prime choice when people buy flowers as a gift. When they choose for themselves, they usually prefer something else.

The New Year begins in cold and darkness. In other cultures it was reckoned to begin in spring. Whenever it is celebrated there is, or might be, room to consider the time past.

                    Year’s end,
                    so many days to remember
                    this night of new-fallen snow

                    Snow upon snow,
                    another day is gone,
                    another year

Divisions of time in months and years are artificial yet unavoidable, even to us who do not live an agricultural year.

                    Moon-shadows,
                    grey branches           on night snow

Winter weather is a study in all the shades of grey and white, but we need a touch of colour, too.

                    Deep red and orange,
                    the tulips make my sunset
                    this day of snowy sleet

Towards the end of January our commercial greenhouses start to produce tulips, in all colours, much in demand during the long period of late winter until Easter or thereabouts.

May these words help to keep memories alive and true!