Apparently even at the unofficial start of summer you’re never very far from a white out. Late spring in Colorado has been a veritable four-season Alpine adventure: sunny and hot in Denver one day, a blizzard on the road to Vail the next. Um, I’d settle for just a touch of spring, please.
the road to vail is paved with snow intentions
bracing for the blizzard
I was supposed to be flying to Trinidad tonight for Carnival but two canceled flights in as many hours have made short work of those plans. Currently I’m not scheduled to fly out until Sunday – if I’m lucky, that is. So, like the rest of the tri-state area I now find myself bracing for the first big blizzard of the season. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, I say. If I’m going to be stuck here, I hope it’s a doozy!
another day, another blizzard
Coming out of the subway yesterday afternoon at the intersection of Broadway and Madison Square Park was like stepping into a Stieglitz photograph: the imposing prow of the Flatiron Building seemed ready to sail up Fifth Avenue, yet it was delicately ethereal, too, seen through a sudden wet gauze of new snow. The precipitation was unexpected, which made it all the more magical. Who’d have anticipated that another blizzard was hot on the heels and by morning I’d rise to find the city practically paralyzed yet again.
snowmageddon
Nothing beats the instant paralysis this city endures with the first big snowstorm of the year. And boy, oh boy did we have a post-Christmas doozy of a blizzard this year. Twenty inches in 24 hours – with 50 mile an hour winds, to boot – is nothing to sniff at. Which is why I’ve nicknamed it Snowmageddon. Venturing out yesterday once it had finally passed, I found a kind of beautiful mayhem: unploughed roads, waist-high drifts, and cars abandoned higgly-piggly. Then I came upon this post-apocalyptic Jitney in the middle of Third Avenue and realized there was only one sensible thing to do: go shopping.
bucket list: 2010 – february
FRANCE: I narrowly escaped a snowstorm which ultimately paralyzed the Northeast only to find myself landing in Paris in the middle of a – you guessed it – snowstorm. But, of course, it’s Paris, so despite the aching cold it was also achingly beautiful. (Plus, a pair of newly-acquired woolly French long johns kept me from succumbing to the elements.) I had cassoulet on the brain – I blame the cold – and it led me on a foraging expedition through a handful of my favorite shops in the 2nd arrondissement: the mothership E. Dehillerin, La Bovida, G. Detou, Mora, and new favorite victualler, Comptoir de la Gastronomie, where I chanced upon both haricot Tarbais and duck confit, conveniently vacu-sealed as if awaiting a trans-Atlantic journey inside my luggage. The foraging paid off handsomely. Not only did I return home to concoct a splendid cassoulet, I also ultimately invented the “cassoulet cake,” a brilliant – if i do say so myself – use of leftover beans and duck.
happy to be home
And not in Ireland for the holidays! The University of Dundee’s satellite receiving station captured this image of how the heavy snow of the past week has affected the UK and Ireland. The picture shows almost the entire country covered by a blanket of snow. (Image courtesy of BBC News.)
snow day
I’m trapped on the eastern end of Long Island in the first big blizzard of the year. Thankfully, I didn’t try to catch the Long Island Railroad last night – reports on the morning news told of passengers stranded on the rails for four hours in the middle of the night, waiting to be rescued. The roads are a nightmare and although it looks like the city is on its way to digging itself out, the storm continues to blow out here, making me wonder how – and if – I’ll eventually make my way back home. At the very least I’m glad to not be one of the thousands of people who were forced to spend the night stretched out on the floor at the airport last night, waiting for planes that never arrived – and seeing their holiday plans shattered.
