Anchorage is deep in snow, with three feet falling within the space of a week(!). So with snow on the mind, sharing some history I had found thinking and reading about snow:
One of the earliest accounts of snow comes from the Han shi waizhuan, an anthology of Chinese poetry from 150 BCE. In an anthology, the poet Han Ying contrasted the pentagonal symmetry of petals and the hexagonal symmetry of snowflakes.
Later Chinese poets also remarked on the six-fold nature of snow. In 525 AD Hasaia Tung wrote:
the ruddy clouds float in the four quarters of the cerulean sky, and the white snowflakes show forth six-petalled flowers.
In the 12th century, Chu Hsi similarly wrote
six generated from the earth is the perfected number of water, so as snow is condensed into crystal flowers, these are always six-pointed.
Olaus Maguus’ description sketch of different forms of snow… (Public domain).
Of snow, Magnus wrote:
…it is quite obvious what a multiplicity of wonderful shapes and figures of snow can be found and examined everywhere, principally in the regions of the North and those lands which lie alongside them; indeed the farther one goes towards the Arctic Pole, the more the falling snows are seen to vary in their quantity and quality; consequently it seems more a matter for amazement than enquiry why and how so many shapes and forms, which elude the skill of any artist you choose to name, are so suddenly stamped upon such soft, tiny objects. In fact during the same day and night you may encounter fifteen to twenty distinct patterns, and sometimes more. Besides, just as much variety can be seen on the panes of glass which are set to keep out the cold in the windows warmed cabins. For while such places are heated against the enormous depth of frost to provide higher temperature within, the cold outside and the wonderful handwork of Nature are seen to have so embroidered these panes with such different patterns that any artist you like, when he had looked at them, would be more capable of marveling at her genius than copying it.
He wrote of people making tables, chairs, windows of ice. And he describes at length people’s activities in the snow in 16th century Scandinavia—boys fighting mock battles, spending days building snow forts and battlements—so similar to my son’s delight when he was younger when there accumulated enough snow to create a fort in the center of the neighborhood with his friends, spending whole evenings building and playing.
16th-century snow forts… (public domain).
Also delighting in the different terms of snow:
Névé: young, granular snow partially melted and refrozen
Firn: partially compacted névé, snow left over from past seasons that has recrystallized, become denser—between snow and glacial ice.
Graupel: water that is supercooled and freezes on falling snowflakes, creating balls of crisp, opaque rime. Rime: supercooled water that freezes onto surfaces.
Hoar frost: white frost formed by frozen dew.
Onding: a Scots term for a heavy snowfall (but not a blizzard).
Blizzard: not used to describe a snowstorm until the late nineteenth century. Ice crystals: tiny needles of ice in extremely cold conditions, glinting in the air like shards of light.
Wishing you all warmth as we turn the corner of the year toward light.
Thanks FR. It's time for the light.
What lovely light through the snowy trees! And ... 3 feet in that space of time is a lot, wow ☃️