Open water!

I wasn't able to get to the St. Croix until today.
Upstream from Osceola, the river is bank to bank open water.
My Winter-weary spirit soared when I saw it.
(Local lakes are still ice covered, although the ice in shallow bays is starting to get discolored and recede from shore in a few places.)

St. Croix River open water    © harrington

Some trees are starting to open their leaf buds, despite snow cover still hanging on in shady areas.

leaf buds starting to open       © harrington

Feeder streams are free flowing and bank full.

bank full feeder stream     © harrington

I think we've made it to Spring 2014! Connie Wanek's poem "Ice Out", in County Lines, nicely fits today's report. Isn't it fantastic that National Poetry Month brings Spring to the north country?

Connie Wanek

Ice Out

The south wind discovers a loose thread
and winter begins to unravel.
The furnace blows a warming reverie
The first black and blue butterfly
materializes. The second.
They find each other.

The snow fort is in ruins.
Stacks of ammunition
have melted into the grass.
A float plane with stiff wings
banks over the pines, turning north;
an eagle, too, searches for open water.

Open water. A window to the bottom.
Sometimes the water is co clear
that it hardly exists
except as a change in viscosity.
The island has its moat again,
the moon its mirror.

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