November snow: come and go?

Last night's snow has mostly melted. Local tv stations are already warning us Minnesotans about the prospects for 2020 Spring flooding. Today I'm thankful that our house sits on the Anoka Sand Plain and outside the flood plain of the Sunrise River. The NOAA Winter forecast is for wetter than normal conditions to continue. I will be thankful if none of the forecast precipitation falls as freezing rain. Neither snowblowers nor four-wheel drive is much use dealing with that. It will, no doubt, be interesting to watch what happens with our saturated ground, continuing precipitation and potential for Spring runoff. This isn't the first time we've started Winter with local waters already high. One of yesterday's photos showed swans loafing on Sunrise River pools with really high water at the end of the first week of December 2017, I believe.

November's snow is often just come and go

Photo by J. Harrington

One of these days, probably sooner than I'd like, snow will arrive and stay. For now, I'm enjoying the added contrast it provides the countryside, then watching the melt. I'm thankful that there was no Halloween blizzard this year and that the coming and going of the snow is starting to get me to slow down and focus better. In fact, if I hadn't successfully given up New Year's resolutions years ago as a New Year's resolution, slowing down and focusing better might be a worthwhile resolution for next year. Maybe someone can give me those two adjustments for Christmas. Did you know it's only five weeks until Christmas Eve? I've started on my Christmas shopping already, so I've that to be thankful for and will be even more so when finished.

our very own "Charlie Brown Christmas tree"

Photo by J. Harrington

Soon, it will be time to get this year's Christmas tree. Last year we cut one of our own pines to decorate. We're planning on doing the same this year. I'm thankful we live somewhere we can do that. About a decade ago we cut down a blue spruce. Never have I dealt with such stiff, sharp needles on a Christmas tree. I'm thankful I remembered that lesson. Before we can do that, however, I need to repair the tree stand. With luck, I'll get to be thankful I could find the pieces needed to fix it.

Although we haven't mentioned it much, we're thankful that November is Native American Heritage Month. N. Scott Momaday's poem lists many reasons to be thankful, don't you think?

The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee

By N. Scott Momaday

I am a feather on the bright sky

I am the blue horse that runs in the plain

I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water

I am the shadow that follows a child

I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows

I am an eagle playing with the wind

I am a cluster of bright beads

I am the farthest star

I am the cold of dawn

I am the roaring of the rain

I am the glitter on the crust of the snow

I am the long track of the moon in a lake

I am a flame of four colors

I am a deer standing away in the dusk

I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche

I am an angle of geese in the winter sky

I am the hunger of a young wolf

I am the whole dream of these things

You see, I am alive, I am alive

I stand in good relation to the earth

I stand in good relation to the gods

I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful

I stand in good relation to the daughter of Tsen-tainte

You see, I am alive, I am alive

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