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 