The prodigals return, to... ?

Late yesterday, driving through North Branch along Highway 95, we saw five bald eagles! Four (2 pair?) were perched in a tree on the South side of the road. The fifth was farther East, standing in a field of corn stubble. Earlier in the day, we saw several pairs of swans on various local ponds.

bufflehead, ring-necked and bluebill ducks

Photo by J. Harrington

Today we noticed some bluebills (scaup) and bufflehead resting on a Sunrise River pool and a couple of pelicans headed North as we drove over the Mississippi River on I-694. Returning home later, we heard the year's first thunder as we drove through rain showers. Briefly, earlier this morning, it felt almost like Spring weather, as the sun almost came out from behind the clouds. Mother Nature always has been a bit of a tease. For later this week she's teasing us with a threat of returning to Winter for a spell, with the prospect of snow on Thursday and Friday. Clearly, this will not be a year of an early Spring arrival in this part of the North Country. That's often the case.

Spring thunder: rain or snow clouds?

Photo by J. Harrington

Over the years we've lived in Minnesota, we've become accustomed to a frustratingly brief transition between Winter and Summer. We fully expect some week soon to begin with high temperatures in the 40s or 50s and end with daytime highs in the upper 70s or low 80s and then, basically, settle there until late July or August.

The Ponds

by Mary Oliver

Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe

their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them --

the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch

only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?

I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided --
and that one wears an orange blight --
and this one is a glossy cheek

half nibbled away --
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled --
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing --
that the light is everything -- that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.