A Powdered Sugar Snow

The forecast was calling for snow squalls throughout the day, but it wasn't expected to amount to much. In fact, what we got was a combination of several kinds of wintry weather. Mostly some little, light snows that were a lot like powdered sugar.

You remember when you were little and your mother sifted the powdered sugar (also called confectioner's sugar) before making icing, and it was so fine that it went everywhere? Yes, it was like that. But in the very early morning, there was light rain; and in the afternoon, a few bands of much heavier snow tossed in now and then.

I did the bus thing, just so I didn't have to worry about what the weather was doing next. And this meant I got some time on campus both in the morning and in the late afternoon for pictures. (I also had a lovely, hot breakfast at the Corner Room. Yay, me!)

The main shot is a morning scene, in the powdered sugar snow. I had just left the Corner Room and was walking back up the mall below Pattee Library, snapping pictures this way and that. I am such a sucker for all those neatly lined up lamp posts and fence rails and elm trees; I could take hundreds of pictures of them. And sometimes I do just that! So sue me.

I was way, way down the mall, watching people walking, as one does. And I did some super-zooming with the camera, looking further up the mall to capture some human figures that might liven up the scene. Much to my delight, out stepped a lady with a pretty umbrella, and that was that!

I liked the way the blowing snow flurries gave my picture a pointillist effect, turning it into what might have been a painterly Impressionist scene, a la Seurat. I shared it on Facebook, and later in the day, Penn State social media picked up the photo and shared it on both Facebook and Twitter, with my permission.

The weather quieted down a bit during the day. It snowed some, but didn't accumulate. In fact, it was barely cold enough for the snow to stay frozen. It had the feel of a spring onion snow: here and gone, quickly. The walkways were not snow-covered, merely wet, making some nice shiny surfaces for reflections.

But just as I caught the bus back to campus at the day's end, a huge snow squall moved in, and it proceeded to dump a fresh inch or inch and a half with very little ceremony. I hunkered down under my umbrella and dashed about campus, taking as many photos as I could and seeing as much as I could before my next bus.

The wind picked up and suddenly, it seemed to be snowing from every direction at once. Balancing the umbrella and keeping the camera dry while trying to get some snow shots was more difficult than it sounds. It was what I would call extremely challenging conditions for photography.

In my snow pictures of Penn State, I tend to select the ones that represent Penn State as I like it best: which is to say, in the early morning, with very few people about. If you look at many of my campus snow scenes, you might think, "Ah, what a lovely campus, and it looks like about seven people go there."

But here's some truth in advertising: that's not really the case. More often, the scene on the mall in winter is like the picture I've included in the extras: a thronging mass of bodies, cold, soaking wet, and possibly somewhat miserable, braced down and trying in vain to stay dry in the pelting snow, whilst not poking anyone else in the face with one's umbrella.

And it was about a quick dozen shots after the one in the extras that I suddenly realized what time it was. I had just seven minutes to get back to my bus stop in time to catch my bus; a walk that at a normal pace would take about 10 minutes.

So just as the snow was finally starting to get good - which is to say, getting thick and actually "sticking," as we say - I had to put away the camera (carefully, as I was totally covered in snow despite the umbrella) and hoof it on back to the bus!

It is my custom to include a song with each Blip posting, and I've found a fun one to accompany these two snow shots. This is by a self-professed third-grade teacher in Tennessee, doing a fine parody of the famous Adele song, Hello. Here is Mary Morris, with Snow.