Guest Post: The Sound of Silence

Kirstin drew the short straw, and is on vacation in Hawaii.  I, her roommate Jen, am taking over for the week and Guest Posting. 

My weekend was delightful, and somewhat sentimental, although I am going to start with a little of background.  I have been taking three to four trips to Vermont per year for the 23 years that I’ve been alive, making at least 70 trips to the northern land.  I am border lined obsessed with the place (I LoVermont, as my cousin may say).  It is a bit strange, but I like to consider myself a Vermonter that has never lived in Vermont.   

I love the mountains. 

I love the pine trees. 

I love the stars.

I love the smell of the air.

I love the smell of the houses that have absorbed the scent of wood burning in the stoves.

I love the green license plates. 

I love the eccentricity of the people.  

This weekend we had a bit of snow in Pittsburgh, a couple of inches worth on the ground, that started coming down on Friday evening.  As I was walking home on the stilled streets on Friday, I was haulted by the sound of the snow falling.  Have you ever listened to it fall?  It is such a beautiful sound, perhaps one of my favorites and surely one of the most nostalgic.  It reminds me of our family ski trips to Vermont, when I would sit at the peak strapping on my snowboard's bindings as the rest of my family headed down the slope on their skis and listen to the silence.  I love those moments of silence, pierced by the sound of skis carving through the snow.  

These are pictures I took in VT, at Bolton Valley.

My day is filled with so much noise that I have come to treasure silence.  What are you favorite sounds of the seasons?  I have too many to share.