Poem for Thursday and Winter Everywhere

Snow Song
By Frank Dempster Sherman

Over valley, over hill,
Hark, the shepherd piping shrill!
Driving all the white flocks forth
From the far folds of the North.
   Blow, Wind, blow ;
      Weird melodies you play,
Following your flocks that go
   Across the world to-day.

How they hurry, how they crowd
When they hear the music loud I
Grove and lane and meadow full
Sparkle with their shining wool.
   Blow, Wind, blow
      Until the forests ring:
   Teach the eaves the tunes you know,
      And make the chimney sing!

Hither, thither, up and down
Every highway of the town,
Huddling close, the white flocks all
Gather at the shepherd s call.
   Blow, Wind, blow
      Upon your pipes of joy;
   All your sheep the flakes of snow
      And you their shepherd boy!

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It is snowing. That is all the news from here, and has been all day -- we received hourly warnings that it was coming, then things started declaring that they will be closed on Thursday -- Adam's high school, Daniel's college campus, the county government, the federal government, online shopping guaranteed delivery for Valentine's Day, etc. My parents were driving home from New York, outracing the storm after lunch with my uncle, and fortunately got here by dinnertime. Here are a couple of photos of the ducks and seagulls avoiding the ice at Washingtonian Lake yesterday, plus one of the bunnies who came out earlier in the week to get in some grass munching before new snow:













Otherwise, my Wednesday involved some writing and some photo-sorting (I am trying to tag the years on all my Flickr photos set-by-set), picking Adam up from track practice, and telling Daisy to stop sleeping on the vent. I didn't watch the pairs skating till evening, at which point I was spoiled for the results and mostly worried they wouldn't show the Chinese couple skating to Les Miserables because they didn't win a medal. As it happened, I not only got to see the Les Mis routine, but Stephen Colbert declaring in his new position as First Lady of France (a title he granted himself since he was seated next to Hollande at the state dinner) that he will bring Jean Valjean to justice.