Shovelcrusted, twisting, psychohail and 47 other words for snow (via Kate Bush and Stephen Fry)

Late in 2011, Kate Bush released her 10th album, 50 Words for Snow. The whole project is wintry, with all of the songs connected and fitting a seasonal theme.

For the title song, Bush recruited Stephen Fry, who brings his legend of a speaking voice to the recitation of, yep, 50 different words or phrases that describe snow. Some of them are right out of fantasy, while others — especially on a day like today in St. John’s, where we are surrounded by a heavy, wet, crusty kind of snow — are all too real.

[Bush was evidently inspired by a myth that the Inuit (her lyrics refer to the word Eskimo, which though perhaps acceptable in some places outside Canada, is considered a slur with Inuit here and elsewhere in the Arctic) have 50 words of their own to describe snow.]

Here’s a shovelcrusted (word No. 45) view from my place today: