Winter weary?

[UPDATE on Tuesday, 2/12: See, it's not just us --

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So far today the 3.6" since midnight sets a new daily record for February 12th at MSP. This is the 3rd daily snowfall record this month! #mnwx

After we finished baking a boule of artisan sourdough bread this morning, filling the house with warmth and wonderful aromas, we got most of the last snow storm cleared from the driveway, using the backblade on the tractor.  About halfway through, we got the tractor stuck (again) in a ditch full of snow next to the road. This time extraction entailed getting the jeep and tow strap and some creative driving since the roadway is covered with enough ice that 4WD low range couldn't always get traction. Fortunately, there was only one vehicle that came past as we were finishing up and had the road pretty much cleared. As far as we can tell, no major damage was done to vehicles or personnel. The old trucker's advice about keeping one's britches between the ditches also applies to tractors it seems, at least during snow season.

pining for warmer days?

Photo by J. Harrington

The next snow storm is forecast to start late tonight and end ...? Or, it may slide off the the East and South. We'll have to wait and see. Then there's another one forecast for Thursday. We hope you'll understand if we note how tired we are of Winter and snow and ice and cold and.... Fortunately, one of the books we got for Christmas, we think from the Better Half or the Book Elves, is Richard Wagamese's Embers, One Ojibway's Meditations. We're going to add it to the stack of books we're currently reading because we feel a need to return to a practice of daily meditation and to let go of the frustration and aggravation Winter is tempting us with. All told, today's activities could have turned out much worse. We're grateful they didn't. This Winter's weather could have been worse. We're grateful it hasn't been but still hope it improves.

Some of the poems we're reading these days are from Robert Bly's Silence in the Snowy Fields section of his Collected Poems. The one shared below seems to capture a fair part of our late Winter ennui, although we can't explain how or why.

Snowfall In The Afternoon

by Robert Bly

I
The grass is half-covered with snow.
It was the sort of snowfall that starts in late afternoon,
And now the little houses of the grass are growing
    dark.

II
If I could reach down, near the earth,
I could take handfuls of darkness!
A darkness that was always there, which we never
    noticed.

III
As the snow grows heavier, the cornstalks fade farther
    away,
And the barn moves nearer to the house.
The barn moves all alone in the growing storm.

IV
The barn is full of corn, and moving toward us now,
Like a hulk blown toward us in a storm at sea;
All the sailors on deck have been blind for many
    years.

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