First Day of Snow

Thursday night coming home from the Philharmonie was freezing with a cutting wind, and Friday wasn't any better -- add driving wind, pant-soaking rain, umbrellas rendered completely useless. Saturday followed with sunshine that had nearly lured me out of my flat when the sky quickly darkened with snow flurries. As I watched from my kitchen window, a workman from the next-door flat leaned out and hailed me. This is extremely surprising on two levels: a German working on a Saturday and a German speaking to a stranger. I drew back in shock, privacy invaded, but then came to my senses and shouted back: "Ja, schnee" which if I remember anything from last winter, is roughly how snow is pronounced. The flurries changed to large pellets and I did go out to investigate -- large round white pellets, a cross between snow and hail. They mutated again to huge sticky flakes of snow. All soon melted, but this morning it was snowing again, with a slight accumulation before everything turned to rain. I decided to hide in my flat all day today.