There’s a friend out there who has been longing for a snowfall all winter. She has kept her snowman decorations out to help things along. So now I see the snow coming down and realize that my friend is actually a powerful weather witch, and I’m a little afraid of her.

It is beautiful falling. I’d forgotten how pretty it makes everything look and how clean. We know what a temporary condition that is. Maybe that’s part of the beauty of snow in the South.

Have you ever heard the one about how to tell the southerners from the northerners in a neighborhood? When it snows in the South, the northerners who haven’t lived here very long can all be seen out in their driveways shoveling snow. The southerners will all be out in the front yard with the children, playing in it. They know that it will short-lived, maybe just a few hours

A few years ago when we were in New Mexico, it was early April and it began snowing. The desk clerk laughed at me when I asked if it was safe to drive. It wasn’t sticking or anything; it was just sifting down. I explained that where I’m from that much snow would close the schools. He found that unbelievable.

It is enough of a novelty to make it exciting.

My only regret is that the clump of brave little jonquils blooming out there next to the camellia bushes are stretched out on their backs with their faces mashed into the earth. They are always the first ones to bloom in the front yard, and I always take that as a promise that spring is coming.

We could almost call this a spring snow. And if it came in just a few weeks, it would have been.

When I took the dog out Tuesday morning, fairly early, I could hear the voices of children out shrieking and laughing with their daddy. Evidently, they’d managed to gather up enough snow to make a few snowballs.

The Chihuahua isn’t crazy about it. It’s his first snowfall. He was shocked and disgusted by the sheet of sleet we’ve just recovered from, and you can see what he thinks about this new challenge. He kept giving me unbelieving looks when I took him out. “You expect ME to go out in this?”

I had to carry him out, as he refused to walk in the stuff. Once down in the driveway he fastidiously picked his way back to the porch and took care of business on the door mat.

I suppose that’s better than nothing.

There are a few more branches down in the driveway. Perfect timing, as we’d just finished clearing out what fell during the ice storm.

Our oak trees are a puzzle. They just never seem to finish dropping stuff. They don’t just drop their leaves in fall and call it a day. They ration them out over a couple of months so you never really are able to get them all up. The acorns fall so abundantly that the squirrels party for weeks. When they bloom in spring, the yellow blooms and pollen coat everything, including the cars. They just never finish.

I don’t mean to complain. I’m just saying. We could be buried with those poor people in Boston. Nature is a lot of things, but it’s never predictable. We take what we get, and snow is 100 times better than ice. But spring is coming. We’re hanging on.