A white Christmas in Maryland, Tennessee, USA

A wonderful sight to wake up to It’s early December and we had one flurry of a couple of inches of snow last night. My son and his family live in Knoxville, Tennessee and it’s a milder place, chosen by them because it reminds them of India with its trees and Smoky mountains. I love visiting and consider their home as my second home. Snow for us from India is an unusual occurrence. I hate it with all my heart as I slipped on it while studying in Swansea in Wales ten years ago and was lucky not to have hurt myself. I fell in the slush and got my leather coat covered in muck and the back of my leather boots too. Once I reached church which I was on my way, my colleagues wiped me down and I was as good as new. But the fear of breaking a bone or two while slipping on snow and black ice has stayed with me ever since. Something like being bitten by a dog as I am diabetic.

The neighbourhood wakes up to a white blanket of snow That’s the beauty of enjoying snow. Getting up and looking out of the window at this carpet of white which has magically covered all the roofs and gardens and ofcourse the cars. Luckily it’s warm enough in Tennessee not to cover the roads and make them unmotorable like it happens in Omaha, where the kids studied in a Jesuit institution called Creighton. The best as they say. Usually in Tennessee one sees snow first in Gatlinburg which has seen snow as early as October and as late as April. Though Gatlinburg may sometimes see snowfall before Thanksgiving and Christmas, these weather events are quite rare.

Even the bird feeder has a nice coat of snow According to the net, snow in Tennessee is varied from region to region. For example, in 2016, the city of Nashville got about 10 inches of snow while Memphis managed an average of about 5 inches. The National Weather Service said .4" of snow fell in Nashville as of Monday night, something that on average only happens every 19.3 years. The National Weather Service said this is the seventh time that measurable snow has occurred in the city before Nov. 11. NWS said the last time measurable snow was reported this early was in 1996. So the climate is changing, but who is listening?

White fairy dust sprinkled on the trees The kids interviewed in several places and finally chose Tennessee because it’s a great place to live if you have a good job or come here with great retirement benefits. This is because there's no income tax and property taxes are generally lower than in “blue states” as I have been told. Meanwhile each time I come and travel around the state I can see that TN cities are growing and thriving economically and the towns are booming from the time the kids came here five years ago.