The coldest week this Winter?

We're back to the kind of temperatures that make the dogs want to elevate all 4 feet while they take care of business. No major warming trend in sight. Bird feeders, both sunflower seeds and suet, are refilled. That should be good for 20 or 30 minutes at the rate the birds have been taking advantage of their free lunch. Today I noticed juncos, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, and nuthatches, plus downy and hairy and red bellied and pileated woodpeckers.

birds flocking to the feeders

Photo by J. Harrington

There's been a little sunshine from time to time, but just enough to cheer (brighten?) things up, no where near enough to warm things up. Even with global warming, Minnesota is finding ways to be seasonable. I wonder if we'll get another January thaw later this month or if what we had earlier this week is all we get 'til Spring. Tomorrow might be a good day to start cleaning fly lines for next season and maybe write about my gratitude for the stack of unread books, the coffee, cookie and candy supply, and the existence of hope.

The Thaw

Henry David Thoreau, 1816 - 1861

I saw the civil sun drying earth’s tears —
Her tears of joy that only faster flowed,
Fain would I stretch me by the highway side,
To thaw and trickle with the melting snow,
That mingled soul and body with the tide,
I too may through the pores of nature flow.
But I alas nor tinkle can nor fume,
One jot to forward the great work of Time,
‘Tis mine to hearken while these ply the loom,
So shall my silence with their music chime.

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