I was hustling down to the sheep field in the dark in search of a couple of stray ducks when I nearly stepped on this cute little fellow:
For scale, his eyes are about the size of raisins, his arms the size of matchsticks…
Perhaps six inches tall, his spindly little twig arms looked to be in desperate need of a sweater! (I know there are others out there who are suffering truly dreadful temperatures, but we are sitting at -4 C with 50 km/h winds so it feels quite a bit colder than that and, keep in mind, we are not used to such wintery weather!) Despite the cold, we didn’t get much snow which is probably why the neighbor’s children could only scrape together enough snow to make this adorable micro-snowman.
It did make me wonder about snowmen and their origins. Turns out the first illustration of a snowman was found in the margins of The Book of Hours dating back to 1380 [this, according to Wikipedia).
Bethel, Maine seems to be famous for its massive snowman – in 2008 they defended their World’s Largest Snowman title by building a 122 feet 1 inch snow-woman dubbed Olympia Snowe after the senior Republican US Senator representing Maine [again, thanks to Wikipedia for this nugget of snowy trivia].
HUGE snowperson in Maine.
I remember many nose-run-inducing sessions spent outside as a child (when I actually did live in legitimately cold parts of Canada – places like Banff, Calgary, and Fort McMurray…) building various snow people, snow forts, snow tunnels, and snow benches. But never (perhaps because of the abundance of snow available) did I ever think to construct such an adorable diminutive version of the species. It makes me want to go outside right now and build a little army of them marching up the side of the driveway.
Though, not enough to actually bundle up – again – and brave that nasty north wind. Instead, I’ll post a public thanks to the kids out there who don’t seem to mind grovelling around on the ground, rolling and pushing and shaping and moulding all that wet, white, cold stuff into delightful quasi-people for the rest of us to enjoy.
Here’s the cheater version – no need for mittens, boots, snowsuits, shovels, or excessive nose-blowing. If you squat down and squint a bit, you could almost fool yourself into thinking there was an actual snowman out there…
Does anyone know if it’s possible to post photos into the comments? If so, please feel free to post photos of your friendly neighbourhood snow people. If not, then a link would be the next best thing! That way I won’t even have to go outside to enjoy their frosty faces!
darkcreekfarmdotcom 
Love your tiny snowman. The one in Bethel looks remarkably like a lighthouse to me. The thought of a small army of snowmen makes me think of the Calvin and Hobbes series of snowmen, and since no one in my family felt creative enough to scrape snow out of the grass to make even an elven snowman, here is the best I can do for a link: http://www.chase3000.com/userpages/calvinhobbes/
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Thanks for the link! Tons of snowmen to enjoy!
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Hi! Maybe I could build a sandman and send you a pic…. no snow in Florida–at least not yet this year! 🙂
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That would work! You could make a tiny sand twin for the little guy up here… Enjoy the sun!
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Definitely can’t complain about the weather, unless I wanted to say it is too hot (but won’t). What kind of books do you write? (I was reading your NaBloPoMo post on BlogHer, read that you write a book a year, and am curious.)
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Thanks for sparing us the ‘too hot’ comment! I write mostly children’s books – there’s a link to the most recent one (Down to Earth: How Kids Help Feed the World) over in the sidebar to the right. My author page (and not very active author blog) is at: http://www.nikkitate.com I’m currently working on another in the same series as Down to Earth about different kinds of houses all over the world. It includes quite a bit of info about alternative building methods (straw bale, cob, etc) and has been a lot of fun to research, particularly as that one is co-authored with my daughter, Dani. Usually writing is a pretty solitary activity, so it has been great to work with someone else, particularly a someone else whose company I enjoy so much!
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Great. I didn’t know you by name but thought that book might be by you. I was intrigued by the title because I have my seniors working on Capstone Projects, in which they choose a project that will change the world in some way. Sounds along the same line as the title, at least! Your books sound interesting, and what a blessing to be able to work on one with your daughter! Congratulations!
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It’s funny how I think of the blogging friends I have made by their blog names and often have no idea of their actual, real life names… It’s also a bit weird how my online blogs have mostly cleaved and when I’m on the farm blog I’m not usually thinking about my writing life… It took an embarrassingly long time for it to occur to me that it might be a good idea to put a link to my farm-related book on my farm blog. Duh.
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