The First Snow

We were told we would not make it out of October without seeing snow in Nederland, and that once it stuck, we would probably see it until May.


Last night, it began to snow: a little at first and then heavier as the night wore on.

Although I am coming to understand that "heavy snow" is a matter of cultural experience.

Before it was over, we received about 2 1/2 inches of snow. For us, who have seen about that much when you combine all four years of our Dallas tenure, this was quite a bit.

However, I found in my AP style manual this morning that "heavy snow" refers to amounts greater than 4 inches in a 12-hour period. So we did not have heavy snow, but half-heavy snow.

I took three sets of photos: one from the night the snow began, one from the morning after and a final set from the late afternoon of the same day.

It turns out that Austin LOVES snow. We were worried about this, because in Dallas Austin seemed to freak out at the moderately cool winter evenings. He has a tendency to burrow into the warmest place he can find on most occasions.

But in the snow, he's a different animal altogether.


Austin tears up the hillside, jams his nose into the snow, races through the trees and just generally rockets across the snow like a dog we've never seen.

He's a Tibetan Spaniel. Up until now, we thought it was merely because his spaniel ears look like Sherpa ears muffs. Now, we're wondering if he isn't more suited to the cold winter environment than the warmth of Texas.

As usual, we took dozens of photos of Austin, all of which can be found in my photo archive.