When I was a child, I used to walk through the snow in the woods with my grandfather I called “Papa,” to cut a Christmas tree and get some greenery for the mantelpiece over the fireplace. I walked behind him and watched the snow fall on his dark overcoat and hat. I could see the little star-like shapes of the snowflakes and they all had a slightly different shape. I was fascinated with them and asked lots of questions. In springtime when he was hunting rabbits, I was busy looking at dew drops clinging to fences and spiderwebs.
My Papa was born in 1876 and was a self-educated man — actually very smart. He was a wordsmith as well as a mathematician. I think I inherited his fascination with nature, but certainly not mathematician.
He told me that each snowflake was a cluster of little shapes, no two alike, and said they were formed high in the atmosphere. He told me he would let me use his magnifying glass to look at them more closely when we got back home. I’d spend the afternoon on the back porch looking at them, trying hard to find two that were alike, to no avail.
I continue to be mesmerized by ice crystals, whether they be snow or frost, as well as dew drops. Papa told me about the dainty, lace-like shapes of hoar-frost that form on sticks and straws that resemble a cluster of butterflies.
I read more about ice formations in the book “Water Wonders,” written in 1907 by Jean M.Thompson, given to me by an old college professor, Constance Ohlinger. I could not put it down until I had read it from cover-to-cover. The kicker under the titles says; “Every child should know dew, frost, snow, ice, and rain.” I agree!
Thompson said in her book: “The beauties and peculiarities of the hoar-frost crystals are a distinctly separate study in themselves, as they do not belong, nor are they classified with the heavier frosts of late and mid-winter, such as we find in extreme cold weather deposited on our windowpanes and elsewhere.”
Most of us have given little time or very serious thought to the study of snow, or the marvelous detail which goes into the fashion of the individual snow crystal. Had it not been for my Papa, I probably would never have delved into it either. If he had not had a magnifying glass, I would not have been able to see the detail. But I did marvel at the frost on the kitchen windowpane while Granny cooked breakfast, telling her, “LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!”
January ended with great expanses of snow-covered hills and valleys stretching for miles beneath the bright winter sunshine, charming children on sleds and others from bay windows. Thompson said, “How could it be possible for such exquisitely beautiful jewelled crystals to fashion themselves in the vast spaces of heavens, among the clouds?”
Snow is, in itself, the water in solution crystallized into irregular and regular, more or less geometrical forms and designs, of two distinct types: the granular and the crystalline forms. The structural formation of snow crystals is generally found to be of hexagonal shape, usually six-cornered or pointed, with rare photos of trigonal crystals. The columnar types are formed into long, slender, needlelike crystals or columns, usually tapering at one end, looking like a very beautiful, showy, snow jewel.
Far above the clouds, in the vast silences of space, in the thinnest air, supported by up-rushing winds, the little snow crystals form and multiply, embellished and enlarged by their continual warring contact with the elements until they eventually descend earthward, Thompson said in her book. Capturing and photographing a perfect snowflake is a feat that takes patience and expertise. A rare occurrence!
The wonders of water! It is an endless study and one we can teach our children early on. My six children were all fascinated with the wonders of dew, frost and snow. I enjoy my school bus run in warm weather when the dew begins to fall at sunset and continues through the stillness of night into the morning. It hangs on the gossamer-like spiderwebs like diamonds glistening in the sunshine, swaying in a gentle breeze. All of the plant life and vegetation sparkles in the morning sun and seems to be embellished with a million jewels. Thompson says the Dew Fairy does not neglect the smallest blades of grass.
If you have enjoyed the pleasure of the early morning as I have for more than 21 years, you will long remember the refreshment and the peace that comes with communing with nature at sunrise, stooping to smell the fragrance of a rose petal kissed with dew... or a day lily...
I could go on and on about the joys of Mother Nature and the book, “Water Wonders,” but I will leave you to explore it on your own. And share the joys with your children and grandchildren.
Shirley Caudill of London is a former newspaper editor/publisher and longtime freelance columnist. She is a Nashville native who has lived in Kentucky 40 years. She has six children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and is married to a retired Army First Sergeant. She can be reached at gunnstar4912@gmail.com
