This winter we got about 120 inches (10 feet) of snow at our house.  It snowed a lot in December followed by the cold months of January and February so the snow never had a chance to melt.  It just compacted and settled in for the winter.  It covered everything in the yard with a white glittery blanket – pure simple beauty. 

Then, typical in April, it starts to melt.  In a period of a few days, the edges of the yard begin to appear, while the center of the yard remains a pile of bulletproof white stuff.  Then it gets covered in fresh snow, then it melts, fresh snow again, more melt.  Soon all the snow is ringed in mud.  Mud everywhere – so much mud that you can’t even see your car from all the mud on it.  During the day, huge icicles form off the roof and all the pavement becomes wet from the melt.  At night the icicles freeze into place and the pavement becomes a skating rink.  Then the icicles melt again, then freeze again creating lumpy icicles. 

At first glance, this seems like a dirty, sad part of the year.  But there is a lot of beauty in the melt.  Sitting outside you hear everything dripping, soft patter of moving water.  There are more birds arriving every day chirping and fluttering as they look for food and start making nests.  The sun is bright, the sky is blue.  The air feels warm in comparison to the past few months.  I enjoy knocking off all the icicles I can reach trying to avoid injury from impalement.  I love to hear them crash, shatter and skitter on the ground.  If they happen to hit snow instead of ground, they make a dull thud sound instead as they embed themselves in the snow.  Everything is shiny even the air.   Everything is moving and making soft sounds.  The patio furniture re-appeared from under the mountains of snow.  The aspen are budding.  The column of ice hanging from the gutter is starting to reveal the rain chain it formed around. 

If you look past the mud, you will see the beauty in the details of the melt.