This Is How Winter Comes

Changes in climate and nature have been important to humans since ancient times. They have been noticed and have become landmarks in human life.

The coming of winter is an important moment in the cycle of nature and in the lives of those of us who live in a four-season climate.

Winter begins in many ways. The calendaristic, astronomical, and in a material and easily observable dimension. If there are fixed and known dates for the calendar and astronomical moments, no one knows the exact date for the beginning of winter in "reality", as they say...

It reminds me of my childhood and the restless waiting for the coming of the tangible and much-desired winter. I mean the coming of snow and snowfall, the true sign that winter has arrived!

When I was a child, that is many years ago, in the middle of the last century, I thought that when winter started in the village where I grew up, it started in the whole country. I didn't understand the size of the country or the fact that the climate could be different in different regions and cities of the country. Back then the weather was probably... very likely. Now we can know with some accuracy when it will rain, when it will snow, or when it will be warm.

I knew there was going to be an early winter in my city too and started waiting for the snow, just like I used to as a child.

I noticed something strange, but maybe it's not strange, maybe it's something scientifically normal and that is that the first snow starts, most often, at night. Now, if I think about it, it's normal, because at night it's colder and so the rain turns easily into snow.

That's what prompted me to run to the window in the morning after waking up from sleep to see if it had come... and it finally came. Shyly, winter sprinkled a little snow in my little yard!

A little snow sifted like a powder. I could barely see it but it was a sign, a sign that it was beginning.

I also looked up at my trees, my favorite birch trees, which are coloring their leaves yellow and orange in late autumn. No sign of winter on their branches.

What do you think is the next step I take when I think snow is starting to fall? You guessed it, a walk in the nearby park. My park, my neighborhood nature provider.

In the park, the signs of winter are more pronounced and the crows foraging under the dry leaves are also a sign of winter. More than that, the first snow has fallen. Calm, slow, like any beginning...

Signs are that it won't be just a timid attempt at snowfall. The snow has also found a few places to settle.

It's not even a real snowfall. For now, the snow is mixed with rain, there is a battle going on in which I hope the snow wins.

Leaving home wasn't just for a walk. I needed to get downtown and to get to the subway station I had to cross the park. Winter in the city is not so beautiful. At first, the snow sits hard on the road, finding itself crushed at first by cars and then by the plows that will remove it. So far it looks like rain on the boulevard near the park.

I like this boulevard a lot because it has a lane divider in the middle, and a green space with grass, roses, and especially birch trees. These still have branches full of yellowed leaves.

There followed a half-hour underground on the subway that took me downtown. When I got out of the subway I had a big surprise. I thought that Winter wouldn't dare to come downtown... and I discovered that it was there that she had been unleashed. A heavy snowfall, the likes of which I haven't seen in a long time!

After only an hour in the center, we headed home and already the landscape had changed.

The park has gone into winter mode! I love that already the photos of the snow-covered trees look black and white. Only the birches are different, with their green-yellow-orange leaves.

It hasn't snowed in early December for five years. The climate of the city, this is Bucharest, the climate of the south of Romania has started the transformation from a temperate-continental to a Mediterranean climate.

A Mediterranean climate on the edge, with shorter and shorter winters and milder and warmer summers!

In just one hour winter has swept through my park. I also saw the first snowman, small, so small it was placed on a bench.

When I say "my park" I hope you don't think it belongs to me. No, it's the park next to my house, my chance to have nature close by. I wanted to choose which season was more beautiful and I couldn't. I realized it's miraculous in every season!

The snow soaked the camera lens, resulting in an unexpected effect.

When I got home I saw the changes in my small, birch-filled yard.

For two hours I was away from home. You can see how winter has won the battle with autumn. It was a small victory because I knew that in a few days, this first snow would be a memory. A few collages that will show the difference, the difference of two hours of snowfall.

I don't know if I can say that the first snow is not forgotten, as others are not forgotten. That's why I wrote this blog, to remain a memory and proof.
I am curious how this winter will be. Will it be richer in snow than last year? Until then, until I find out, I am content to look out the window at the spring in the house and the winter outside!