Is there anything more wondrous than the season’s first snow? When you wake up one morning and there is no color out the window? Not unlike an old, Oscar-worthy movie on a very big screen.

The snow piles on top of slender branches, doubling their depth, testing their strength. A light wind would shake it free, but there is no wind this Sunday morning.

The falling snow slows its pace, turning from nearly-invisible drops to storybook fluff, wafting slowly downward as each flake develops an air pocket.

Never mind the Inuits’ mythic collection of names. The people of Scotland have their own wonderful snow vocabulary. They say ‘feefle’ for swirling snow, and ‘flindikins’ for a quick little snow shower. Big flakes are called ‘spitters,’ and ‘glop’ is the wet, packed stuff that sticks to your boots.

I stand at every window in our house and watch the snow redesign the landscape. Below each of the cedars and pines a black circle forms like a life-sized game board. By late morning the temperature rises above freezing and indentations appear on the tops of the snow where heavier, watery drops develop mass and dishevel the smooth surface.

As I stand by the west window, a familiar red-breasted woodpecker shows up suddenly at the feeder. He and I are about four inches apart, with glass between us. He takes one mouthful, jerks his head back to show me his disapproval, and flies off.

Out back, our neighbor Tara’s horses are absent from their paddock this day. No animal tracks of any kind over the smooth floor of the field. Fog is blurring the horizon. A clump of heavy snow falls off a branch of a pine while I am looking. It makes a silent thud.

By morning the world is frozen and crunchy, blinding in the sun and the resurrected palette of colors. ‘Reothadh” means a hard frost, say the Gaelic-speaking Scots. The word cannot be pronounced.

Congratulations to Jamie Alley and David Alger who were married Dec. 10 at the Footlight Club in Jamaica Plain, the oldest performing arts center in the country. Jamie and David met at the club in 2007 and both are actively involved in its management and its productions. You may remember Jamie from childhood, or from the many days he worked at Island Entertainment, where we went to rent a movie in a plastic box, hold it in our hands and take it home to watch on television.

Birthday greetings this week go to Barbara Silk on Dec. 22, to Omar Rayyan on Dec. 23, and to Ken Goldberg on Dec. 24.

Welcome to the winter solstice at 10:03 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 21. It means the daylight hours start to grow longer.

Wishing everyone a loving, festive, warm, and merry Christmas and a joyous Hanukkah to all of West Tisbury, wherever you are.