Snow Sounds

The forecast was for a bit of snow to fall this morning.  I was awake at 4:30, and got up to see if it was snowing.  I thought I'd enjoy watching it fall for a bit.  But it wasn't snowing.

I got up again at 5:30, and there was a half inch or so on the ground.  It was cold - 23 degrees - and the snow was so fine that I couldn't see it falling in the pre-dawn, except directly in front of a streetlight.

I left to walk to work at 7:30, and there was at least an inch down.  The flakes were still very fine - almost pellet-like, but very small.   Still, they brought a slight stinging sensation to my exposed nose.
I walked up the street past the big sycamore.  Something - perhaps the intense cold - had loosened the hold of some of the remaining leaves, and the fresh white snow had newly fallen brown sycamore leaves scattered about.

The snow fell, silently, and the whole landscape was quiet, even the normal levels of sound dampened by the layer of snow.

I walked past a small tree that still had its lifeless brown leaves hanging on, and heard a rustling sound.  I stopped and edged closer, listening as the snow rattled off the brittle leaves, this quiet vibration, almost too faint to hear, standing out in contrast to the overall stillness.

A little farther on, some small oaks in the median also clung to their leaves, and I stopped again to listen to the gentle percussion of snow on leaves.