Island Light: Snow in the Countryside
Not a cloud in the azure sky along MIddle Road.
Not a cloud in the azure sky along MIddle Road.
Victorian houses on Ocean Park barely rise above last week's snow piles.
Victorian houses on Ocean Park barely rise above last week's snow piles.
All is quiet (yet plowed!) Sunday along Edgartown's South Water street.
All is quiet (yet plowed!) Sunday along Edgartown's South Water street.
We know moss grows on the north side of a tree ... but how about snow?
We know moss grows on the north side of a tree ... but how about snow?
Drip, drip, drip go the icicles at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven.
Drip, drip, drip go the icicles at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven.
Steps to the old Marine Hospital look daunting with a coat of snow.
Steps to the old Marine Hospital look daunting with a coat of snow.
Jennifer McCurdy and Wendy Mulhern bike on a beautiful day after the melt.
Jennifer McCurdy and Wendy Mulhern bike on a beautiful day after the melt.
Waves swirl around Chilmark's Lucy Vincent Beach.
Waves swirl around Chilmark's Lucy Vincent Beach.
Lisa Randall walks her dogs Layla and Finn, as a little wind lifts their ears!
Lisa Randall walks her dogs Layla and Finn, as a little wind lifts their ears!
Some colorful flotsam washed up at Katama after the storm.
Some colorful flotsam washed up at Katama after the storm.
Last weekend's storm and its carpet of white confirm that snow belongs in the countryside, not in the city. Snow is the companion of open fields and peaceful land, of hearthsides and the gray shingle of Island homes, of rolling moors and stonewalls up-Island, of the coastline that is our boundary with the sea. The snowfall reminded the community that something extraordinary happened Saturday.
And then the sun rose over a Vineyard sheathed in white, bringing with it hues of lavender, pale blue, yellow and pink. The snows will return in the wintry weeks ahead. But on the Vineyard it is the heavy snow, as old as the chill of winter, that arrives to the fresh astonishment and wonder of all.