It’s snowing in Northern Virginia! It started last Monday, and we’ve been under a soft blanket of snow ever since. For this California girl, five days of snowflakes and fresh powder has inspired numerous cups of hot tea, pots of soup simmering on the stove, afternoon romps around the yard with the dog, and a snowman or two.

A pre-snow visitor

A few days before the temperatures dropped and the weather system moved in, a rather large fox with a full and luxurious winter coat paid us a visit. We have a hunch this beauty is a she and that the underside of our deck is now a finalist in her quest to secure a den for this spring’s pups. We’ve christened our charming fox “Red.”

Red probably knew about this week’s fantastic snow event long before the meteorologists and their computer models. Animals sense these things more keenly than we humans. They prepare for what nature throws at them, whereas I tend to . . . marvel. Don’t misunderstand, I’m prepared for the snow. I have plenty of bread, milk and chocolate. I stocked the pantry with more than a few boxes of Cheez-Its. There’s gasoline in the car and a sufficient supply of sno-melt in the garage. But when those hypnotic flakes started falling last Monday, I lost all sense of urgency for the compulsory things–laundry, bookkeeping, that report that’s due next Tuesday.

Snowflake inspiration

It turns out, I am not alone. My girlfriend (also a California transplant now living in Pennsylvania) has been baking brownies and making snow angels all week. We had a FaceTime coffee date this morning to share our mutual wonderment. In the end, we concluded that the falling snow was more than beguiling, it was inspiring. For both of us, the snow has been our muse this week—she with her paints and paint brush and I with my needle and thread.

Back when Red showed up in my pre-snow backyard in search of housing, I texted pictures to my girlfriend. When the flurries started, she juxtaposed Red with the week’s accumulation of snow and they became the subject for her watercolor, pictured above. Meanwhile, I resurrected an embroidery project, started last September at the Embroiderers’ Guild of America (EGA) National Seminar in Boston, which also features a charming fox, who I now fondly refer to as Red.

Autumn Crewel, designed by Carol Peao Currier, features a little fox napping among the asters, maple leaves, and ash tree leaves of a New England fall. For some reason, the arrival of Red and the week’s lingering snow days prompted me to pull out this unfinished project. I began in earnest to finish what I started back when the leaves were still green and thoughts of snow were far in the future. [For those who don’t know her (and you should), Carol is a certified National Academy of Needlearts teacher and a long-standing member of EGA. She currently chairs EGA’s Master Craftsman program in crewel embroidery.]

How sweetly satisfying that a fancy little vixen and the changing winterscape inspired both my girlfriend and me—independently and at the same time. Our first response was to be creative.

The first verb

What is it about sitting at the window watching snowflakes swirl around bare-leafed trees that compels creativity? For that matter, why have songwriters and poets throughout the ages been inspired by summer sunsets? Or frothy waves crashing on the sand? Bald eagles soaring above snow-peaked mountains? The gentle drift of river water meandering along banks of bulrush and cattail?

I think it is because creativity is intrinsically linked to creation, to nature. Indeed, the first verb in scripture is created: “In the beginning, God created . . . ” He created the heavens and the earth; stars and planets; the sun and the moon; birds, beasts and fish; light and dark (all really excellent embroidery motifs, by the way). And of course, God created man and woman—in his own image. As his image bearers, therefore, I suppose it’s not so surprising that a week’s worth of snowflakes can inspire a watercolor or a piece of embroidery.

How about you? What inspires your creativity? Share a comment!