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OKAY, SO I COULDN'T STOP myself from photographing more of those icy little aliens that I mentioned yesterday. It's fascinating how they all have a certain resemblance to one another that is unmistakable, and yet each is so charmingly unique.







(Even the ones that aren't real.)

















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I was particularly taken with the one living in the Amish schoolyard not so far from my house. I drove past the boy-covered snow hill, then saw the snow man. My goodness--All of these Amish males were begging to be photographed! I put on the brakes, turned the car around, and took a picture of the elderly Amish snow person. Proceeding slowly up the road, I opened the car window and called to the Amish boys, "I had to take a picture of your snowman!"

"He ain't real!" one of them promptly responded.

"He's not a real snowman?!" I questioned, a little puzzled.

"No, he ain't REAL," he said.

"Did you make him?" I asked.

"No," a few of the boys chorused, "the ones in the other room made him!"

"Ohh..." I was starting to get the picture--the snowman's creators must be older kids.
"Did they tell you that he would be real?" I asked. "Did they say he would come alive?"

One or two of the boys nodded.

"But he ain't real!" the original informant reiterated. He seemed to be struggling to erase that tiny niggling doubt in his mind.

"No, he's not." I assured. "But he's a pretty nice snowman!

"He has a cane!"
Now, that was a fact--no doubt about it; he was happy to explain!







Meanwhile, I'd attracted the attention of the girls.
They stood in a line, giggling animatedly...ah, me...
just begging to be photographed!


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