Summer Snow

After having left Alaska, I almost feel homesick. I want so badly to be back. To experience the rest of the summer there. To be out of this heat. So I have been contemplating snow. I am reading a book called The Snow Tourist: A search for the world's purest, deepest snowfall, by Charlie English.

I just thought I would share some of the first pictures of snow ever taken, with you. Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, the man that took the pictures, developed an intense curiosity for snow when he was child in Jericho City, Vermont. He saw his first magnified snowflake at the age of 15 and began photographing them at 17. He was the first person to ever photograph a snowflake.

Mr. Bentley was thought of as eccentric and sometimes crazy. He tried not to let the towns people's disinterest, nor their comments of his mental state, bother him. To me, his magnificent passion has brought beauty beyond measure. There have been many that have come after, including Masaru Emoto, who wrote The Hidden Messages in Water. Emoto experimented on the effects of positive and negative energy on water as it formed into ice crystals then photographed the results.

Above a water crystal formed with the words "Love and Gratitude" adhered to the dish it was frozen in. Below and ice crystal formed with the words "You make me sick" adhered to it. 

Both books are a fascinating read. The Snow Tourist gives a, perhaps unintended, perspective on global warming and capitalism, while The Hidden Messages in Water shows what effect positive energy has on increasing beauty. Hopefully you get a moment to check them out.