I unfortunately wasn’t home on Friday to do a “white” post in honor of the UN’s International Day of Peace. I know I’m late for the day, and early for the season, but there is nothing more quietly peaceful to me than snow. I realize that winter is a depressing time for many people. I myself tend to wish it away. Still, there is something magical in the way that snow transforms the world.
My beloved and I live, more or less, right in the woods. When our winter snows come, they fall silently, blanketing everything, even our trees, with layers of pure white. The serenity, as we look out our windows at a wonderland of downy white snow and crystal ice, is lovely.
Of course, the peace doesn’t last. In no time, plows are moving snow aside on our driveway and roads. Human (and animal) footprints mar the perfect surface. Wind, sun, rain all work on the peaceful scene, and once again we see the imperfections in our lawn, the realities of our world.
Winter days are short. Here’s to a more lasting peace.
A Winter Eden by Robert Frost
A winter garden in an alder swamp,
Where conies now come out to sun and romp,
As near a paradise as it can be
And not melt snow or start a dormant tree.It lifts existence on a plane of snow
One level higher than the earth below,
One level nearer heaven overhead,
And last year’s berries shining scarlet red.It lifts a gaunt luxuriating beast
Where he can stretch and hold his highest feat
On some wild apple tree’s young tender bark,
What well may prove the year’s high girdle mark.So near to paradise all pairing ends:
Here loveless birds now flock as winter friends,
Content with bud-inspecting. They presume
To say which buds are leaf and which are bloom.A feather-hammer gives a double knock.
This Eden day is done at two o’clock.
An hour of winter day might seem too short
To make it worth life’s while to wake and sport.
This post was written in response to a Travel Theme challenge from Ailsa at wheresmybackpack. This week’s theme is White, in honor of the UN’s International Day of Peace. To learn more about the challenge and see the peaceful posts from other bloggers, click here.
The Retiring Sort 
I love Robert Frost. I can recite Stopping by the Woods by heart. So peaceful. Great post.
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Thank you! Glad you visited!
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Such stunning white landscape TRS! And that poem is a perfect accompaniment. Thank you 🙂
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Thank you, Madhu – I do love Robert Frost! 😉
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Inspiring. Makes me want to travel again.
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Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
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Love the photos and now I wish it was snowing.
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Soon enough! 😉
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gorgeous images but that poem is wonderful
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Thanks, Jo – glad you enjoyed it. Frost is a real favorite of mine!
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We all have favourites…mine is Banjo Patterson
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Fresh snow is very lovely as your pictures showed. 🙂
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It’s like the world has a fresh coat of paint! 😉
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Never too late to wish for peace.
Beautiful snow :-).
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You’re absolutely right, Gemma – Thanks! 😉
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Very nice.
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Thanks!!
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Lovely!
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Thanks, Livvy!
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Snow is so beautiful, though I am very happy to view it through your lens from my vantage point along the equator! Thanks for your post; helping create an awareness for peace is important, and maybe one of these days the world will unite in a celebration of white! Z
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Lovely sentiment, Z! Thanks for coming by!
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Wonderland in the winter slideshow. Great white images.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
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Thank you, Francine!
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When it snows like that, it is so QUIET, isn’t it? Nothing like it.
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Exactly – serene!
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Very beautiful white snow slideshow, in the near future we are going to enjoy it. I can not wait for 😆 Have a nice Sunday
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Thanks – you have a lovely Sunday too!
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Beautiful winter scenes. Lovely the poem, and I had to smile at a winter poem being written by someone called Frost. 🙂
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How funny – hadn’t thought of that. Robert Frost was a consummate “New Englander” -I love how he used images from our part of the country to make wonderful statements! 😉
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Oh, but when you wake the morning after a storm, and the day is hushed with snow, gleaming and glistening and pristine – the world is at peace. Beautiful post. 🙂
BTW – congratulations on your Freshly Pressed – it was a great article and i’m glad it got picked up.
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Thank you so much – on both counts! You are wonderfully supportive.
And I agree about waking up to a snow covered world! 😉
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I remember the hushed silence, as though it were yesterday, then registering the pristine, unsullied peace of it 🙂
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