The Beauty of Living in the South

For those of you not familiar with the southern weather, it's hot here. In the winters, we rarely have snow. In the summer, it's oppressive. In the summer, we have hot, humid, sunny days and in the afternoons the sky will cloud over, and we will have a fast and hard rain for a few minutes. The timing of the afternoon shower is important . . . if it comes too early in the day, then in the evening the sun will re-emerge and it will be sauna-like. If the afternoon storm comes too late, we are likely to not have power at the time we normally prepare dinner.

Today, the skies clouded up well before 4:00pm. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A friend who works in an office not far from mine called up. She expressed concern over the darkening skies in relation to the evening drive home. Then, she perked up . . . and announced it was snowing! I asked if perhaps it were hailing? She insisted no. . . this was fluffy, white bits of frozen stuff coming from the sky. I tried to convince her that it would be impossible for it to be snowing given that it was 87 degrees outside.

She went outside to verify the snow. A few moments later, she announced that the "snow" was in fact flowering tree petals.

And, that is one of the great things about being in the south . . . anything falling from the sky that is white is likely to be mistaken for snow.