Winter's last, beautiful gasp

I walked out of the Des Moines Art Center last night and into a winter wonderland.  Big, wet snowflakes the size of golf balls filled the air and covered the ground. The snowfall was absolutely silent, but the flakes were so large it was easy to imagine hearing a 'plop' as each one landed. I hurried to the car in a somewhat futile attempt to protect my sketch pad. 

With my art supplies safely stowed in the back seat, I turned my attention to clearing the car windows.  A few swipes of my bare hand cleared the back window. It wasn't cold enough to bother digging out my gloves. By the time I was back in the car, globs of snow hung like Christmas tree decorations on my coat, jeans and hair. The whole thing made me laugh. It was so unexpected, so pretty, so spring.

At 9:30 p.m., there was little traffic on the freeway and those who were out moved slowly over the slick roads. Two inches of snow fell in about an hour, but it was so heavy and wet that, when combined with above freezing temperatures, it compressed to a half inch.

I'm not a big fan of snow in March, but if we had to get snow, I'm all for this kind.  I'm also for the 50 degree temperatures the weather forecasters predict for later this week.  That's another good thing about March snow. It will be all gone soon.