fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2182 ]

[ SECRET POST #2182 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2182 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #312.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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As some of you F!S'rs have known, I live in the tropics and rarely, outside of snow simulators, have I ever touched any snow. After seeing so many posts about snow on F!S , I've become quite curious as to what it looks like on the other side of the world.

So, in short, can someone please... describe your snowy neighborhood as of this moment? I really don't know what I'm talking about.

~~Pictures of snow can also be appreciated.~~

Snow falls in small clumps, like cotton or tufts of yarn. It makes almost no sound at all and when there's a nice layer, everything is silent and louder at once. It muffles the sounds so every sound you do hear close to you seem louder.

Fresh snow is like a heap of very fine sugar. It shines under the sun and when you step on it, it becomes packed under your foot. If many people step on it and if it's cold enough to freeze over, then you'll get a layer of ice that looks like snow and it'll be very slippery. Sometimes, snow is cold enough for it to be over a layer of ice and it's extra tricky. Sometimes, it doesn't feel like snow but tiny bits of ice lumping together to look like snow.

Snow penetrates through your clothes and your gloves. It bites at your hands, your cheeks and your nose. It makes the air colder but there's something irresistible about going outside when there's snow! Tree branches are often weighed down by snow, but sometimes when it starts thawing, a tree branch will snap back into place throwing snow everywhere. You can see animal prints in the snow as well, much better than on a leaves-covered ground!

Regarding snowballs, well... I depends. Sometimes the snow is too powdery to even think about it, sometimes it's too wet.

Here's a gif of falling snow
http://sopacensoredthisurl.tumblr.com/post/37565179297/snowfall

Plenty more gifs this way: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/snow-gif

Here are a few pics of snowy landscapes near my home!
http://tinypic.com/r/2s0ke2s/6
http://tinypic.com/r/35asmu1/6
http://tinypic.com/r/2lmqagg/6
http://tinypic.com/r/6z7mgm/6

Thanks for answering! And that snow looks... beautiful. Just beautiful. I wish I could just walk along that path in the last picture, just looking around and humming to myself, and maybe taking some pictures for the folks back home.

By the way, do you live in Europe by any chance? Because I don't think the Americas have towns with roofs, steeples and spires like that. At, I don't think so...?

Yes I do! France, to be exact.

You're quite welcome and I hope you'll be able to visit one day!

One day, maybe I'll will. :)

That's just beautiful.

It doesn't snow where I live, so it's one of my life goals to travel some place where it does, just to see how it feels *-*

I saw snow on the ground a few times growing up, but I was 15 before I ever saw it actually falling and I thought the world was coming to an end. I was intellectually aware of snow's origins but I panicked anyway because the difference between knowing something intellectually and actually experience can be massive.

I think I know the feeling. When I was younger I always liked to see nature programs, especially about volcanoes. A few months ago, I went to Indonesia on a personal trip and I got to see a few active volcanoes while I was there, and let me tell you nothing on the television can ever compare with what you are seeing with your own eyes.

It's dark out, and it has been since 5pm. Right now, it all looks a bit unearthly outside, snow reflecting the moonlight and shining blue-purple. There are animal tracks everywhere--mostly from birds, but also skunks, rabbits, and deer.

Under the snow is hard-packed layers of old snow and sometimes (especially on roads) ice. The top layer of snow melts in the sunlight and re-freezes, and you get a frozen crust over top the fluffy stuff. It crunches under your boots, like you're stepping on glass, and your feet sink down to the bottom.

When humid air chills quickly overnight when there's not much wind, we sometimes end up with hoar frost. It grows out from trees in long spikes, and covers everything in a thick layer of white frost. It's very beautiful. After the snow starts to melt, we end up with icicles hanging from our gutters and roofs, and those are really pretty too.

In daylight, when the sky is clear and there's nothing but sun, snow is bright. Really, really bright. Snow sparkles like someone threw glitter everywhere. You can get sunburn from it, and snow blindness. Usually only happens to skiers, though.

Edited 2012-12-24 02:52 (UTC)

Wait, you can get sunburn from snow? I know about snow blindness, but usually around here you would normally get sunburn from being out in the fields (or beaches) for too long.

The sunlight reflects off the snow, doubling your exposure. Most people don't stay out long enough for it to be an issue, but it definitely happens.

It's pretty awesome (for the first couple weeks). Everything gets amazingly quiet - snow falling is noiseless and the snow being everywhere completely muffles sound, and then you get all bundled up with your coat and scarf, and it's like your in your own little world, and you have the snow crunching under your boots, and the bite of the wind at your cheeks and your nose, and it really is just lovely. And the light - whatever light there is is softened, somehow, especially in a city at night. And then you get in out of the cold to wherever you're going, and you shake the snow off your hair and you and whoever you're with all strip out of all the coats and layers, and it's all just very cheerful and full of bonhomie. For me something about the feeling of snow is also always linked to togetherness and good feelings.

A couple years back (I should say, for clarity, that I grew up in a city where there's no snow, and went to college in a place where there was lots of snow, so all of my memories of snow are tied up with the city I went to college in & my experiences there) - but a couple of years ago, there was this absurdly massive blizzard. Snow was just falling in torrents for hours and hours - I had taken shelter in my apartment with my roommates and some friends and you would look at the window and just see nothing but white flakes beating against it. And then around six the snow stopped falling. So much snow had fallen that the city was basically shut down - the roads were out, just too much snow to drive, piled feet high everywhere on the road. And we went out to get dinner, and it was amazing - because the whole place was just completely empty, we were the only people there, and everything was covered in a blanket of snow, and we went out to get dinner, walking down the middle of the street, with no signs of life anywhere.

It was pretty great.

That sounds amazing. I hope someday I'll be able to experience something like that. :)

Earlier in December it snowed those big, feathery snowflakes that consist of lots of individual snowcristals. It snowed about 15-20 cm. The snow had just the right consistancy to make snowballs and snowflakes (often, snow doesn't really stick together if you try to form a ball) so some people made a pyramid-like snowman, a snowwoman and a snowpig in front of our apartment block.

People are supposed to clear the snow of the sidewalks (usually with big shovels) but not all do so. The city also sends snowplows around, large ones for the streets and smaller ones for some sidewalks. In addition to that, in many places they distribute gravel on the sidewalks. If the sidewalk hasn't been swept and it stays cold, the snow gets this slightly sandshore-like texture (for lack of a better description) after many people have walked over it.

Anyway, the ground and the roofs were covered in snow for about 1.5 or 2 weeks, which means that everything looked quite a bit brighter because the snow reflects the light. Then it started thawing until only some of the places where people had dumped the snow from the sidewalk and some sad remains of the snow people were left as icy, dirty clumps of snow.

On Wednesday, it snowed about 5 cm, but shortly after that, it started raining. At first, the temperatures were still below 0°C, so surfaces not covered in snow turned slippery and the snow itself (fairly soggy already) was covered in a thin surface of ice, so that walking through it made really loud crunching sounds.
(Some years ago, it rained really hard on snow that was already there. We ended up with a layer of about 1 cm of ice over about 15 cm of snow. When walking on that, there was always a moment of resistance before your feet broke through the surface and when lifting your feet again, they often snagged on the layer of ice and then broke a plack of it free. It was fairly exhausting to walk for longer distances and was horribly slippery in the areas where the snow had already been cleared when it began raining.)

Anyway, last night the temperatures began rising, so now the ground is covered with patches of soggy snow switching with a mixture of sloppy, muddy water with some ice/snow in it, as well as some slippery areas (the main roads are clear, though). In other words, winter at one of its more unpleasant sides.

tl;dr: Snow. It comes in plenty of varieties. No idea why I have so much to say about this. Possibly because I spent my childhood without snow as well.

Yeah, that does sound a bit unpleasant. I hope there will be more fresh snow in your neighborhood soon!

Some pictures! Not the best quality, but this is basically what my area has looked like since November:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2rr10rr.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/1f8ew5.jpg

And this is what a river looks like in the winter when it's -50 out and still in the process of freezing over:

http://i49.tinypic.com/281mbd.jpg

You should look up images of hoarfrost, too! It's gorgeous. As for description, a lot of the people above me have done a lot better job than I could. Winter in general just kind of has this hushed quality to it, though. There's also a smell when it snows - cold and sharp but almost wet? It's hard to describe. I've lived around snow all my life, but I have to admit I still can't help but sit and watch the first snow fall every year.

Thanks for the pictures! and thanks for making me search for hoarfrost! :)

I want to clarify that this never happens.

I wanted to throw a slushie at them. Yes they are drama kids.

Carolers? As in people who sing songs in the middle of the street? I can't see what's wrong with that, well unless their voices aren't good or they're just annoying other people.

Okay

First: they showed up at 10:15 PM. We were all in our pajamas. We were arguing over who should get the door or if someone should even get the door (we were not at first sure they were carolers). It was great after we opened the door, but:

Second: They were really, really drama club. What do I mean by this? They refused to use their natural voices and instead went as polished and overproduced as possible, including one guy in the middle constantly giving directions. They all clearly had great voices but were... I don't know. Trying too much to sound like a recording.

Which is all just fine because they were high school kids and it was ultimately pretty neat and nice. I was making a Glee joke.

One year, my family and I went caroling. We only went to the houses of people we knew, though. Is caroling usually considered annoying? I think I'd be happy to have them, as long as they didn't sing poorly.

It's 8:30ish here but the sun is still coming up and we had a fresh dusting of snow a couple of hours ago. To me, on rooftops and on pathways where nobody has walked yet, it looks like fine confectioner's sugar. It glitters in what light there is outside and looks crystalline in a delicate way. On the road, where cars have been churning the snow up, it looks like ecru cake batter.

Falling snow resembles rain under light except that it has a different mass and seems to flutter a little bit as it is blown around. Simulators that use small bits of plastic or flaked soap come close to this, but not quite.

Thanks for replying, and for putting the imagery into my head now... :)

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[ SECRET POST #2182 ]

Describe your winter-y neighburhood.

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We just had carolers.

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