Win a little, lose a little

© harrington

Welcome, Take a look at the photo above taken today. It's pretty clear to me that the local red osier dogwood hasn't yet greened up for Spring. The bright red against the white is pretty enough though that I don't really mind. Obviously, the tamaracks/larches aren't showing yet this year's leaves. Most of the local oaks still are hanging onto last year's foliage, which means this years leaf buds haven't yet swelled enough to loosen the old leaf stem and, the current weather forecast is talking about 3" to 6" of snowfall over the next 24 hours or so, and yet, and yet....

© harrington

The sun has returned far enough north that it has the strength to warm dark pavement, or exposed soil, causing snow melt from south facing roadsides. It is now less than a month to the Vernal Equinox (March 20 this year, if you're wondering). Franco the rescue dog and I encountered the first chipmunk of the season day before yesterday. I think we're at that time of year in My Minnesota when the seasonal changes take one step forward, one step back and one step sideways, kind of like the Minnesota Legislature which is also in season. Speaking of the Legislature, according to the Land Stewardship Project, there's supposed to be hearing on the fracking sand issue next Tues., Feb. 26, at noon in the Senate Environment and Energy Policy Committee in Room 107 of the Capitol. LSP is looking for a crowd at this hearing and people prepared to testify again. Please contact LSP's Bobby King at 612-722-6377 or bking[at]landstewardshipproject.org for more information. One thing that kind of amazed me when I recently went back and reviewed the Minnesota Energy and Environment Score Card prepared by/for Minnesota's Environmental Quality Board was that fracking sand never was mentioned as an issue under air quality, water quality, land use or transportation (or anywhere else for that matter). If you have some time and energy, you might want to share with the EQB your opinion about that apparent oversight. Other than that, Think Spring! unless of course you're an ice angler, snowmobiler, snow shoer etc.... By the way, thanks for stopping by. Make it a habit. I enjoy the company.