In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan,   

Earth stood hard as iron,   

Water like a stone;   

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,   

Snow on snow,   

In the bleak midwinter,   

Long ago.   

by Christina Rossetti, English poet (1830 – 1894)   

drawing by Salley. age 6

 With snow falling and lingering in many parts of the country this winter, I’ve found some  snow pictures to show you. First, here’s a crayon drawing saved from my childhood by my mother. Then we skip ahead to 1995, with a detail from the title page of the 32-page edition of Mary Had a Little Lamb. It’s the scene where Mary, her brother and her father are trudging through the snow to visit the lamb in the barn.  

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" 1995

 The next scene is from the illustration for the poem “Snow”, which is in the poetry anthology, You and Me: Poems of Friendship. The snowman is made of felt, painted with an acrylic based bumpy liquid medium. In the background is an old linen tablecloth.  

detail from "You and Me: Poems of Friendship" 1997

 Here are some wee folk dolls that were brought out to play in the snow. 

Wee Folk in the Snow 2002

 This snowflake covered bed spread is part of an illustration from Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. The bed frame is made from some hollow dried plant parts, maybe thorns, with the sharp points cut off. I bought them a long time ago in a bead store. The original illustrations will be shown in a traveling exhibit when the book is released next September. Find out about it here.  

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.