Weather not even fit for ducks

There's a saying among old duck hunters, that goes like this:

fust it rained,
and then it blew,
and then it friz,
and then it snew!

Today we've had all of the above and other. We went out to do some errands and ended up driving through, in no particular order, snow, freezing drizzle, rain, ice pellets, small hail, plus several combinations of the preceding. The (Scottish) word dreich is a perfect fit for today's weather. What was really strange though was twice seeing a small flock of mourning doves feeding on something in the road. Doves overWintering in Minnesota doesn't seem right. It's only been during the past few years that we remember seeing them in the snow.

mourning doves in Minnesota's Winters?

Photo by J. Harrington

On the bright side, we're back home safe and sound; the most critical errand was accomplished and we can look forward to digging into a Christmas present we bought ourselves, Cookies for Santa, the story of how Santa's favorite cookie saved Christmas. Since we've been know to munch on a cookie or two, at Christmas and other times, we couldn't let this story pass by unread. If the Winter's weather patterns stay about as we've seen so far, it's going to be a great season to stay indoors, curled up, reading and nibbling cookies. The Better Half has hinted she may start baking one of these days soon, Christmas cookies, maybe including Santa's favorite, will be high on the list.

could one of these be Santa's favorite cookie?

Photo by J. Harrington

As we all know, tomorrow is the first day of the last month of the year. It's also the beginning of meteorological Winter. Astronomical Winter will start on the solstice, which locally will occur on Saturday, December 21, 2019 at 10:19 pm CST. With luck, by then we'll have dug our fire pit out of the snow bank and will be able to celebrate with a small bonfire. All things considered, our current batch of weather isn't really unseasonable, although it does, we think, remain unreasonable. If it turns our to be a long, difficult Winter, perhaps that may be all to the good. It could well be that many of us need to slow down so we can manage a major reset without derailing. Historically, the weeks between New Years and Valentines have been a down time that, some years, we dreaded, This Winter we hope to use those weeks to bake bread, read and write poetry, as always try to organize our fly-fishing tackle and get organized for Spring and Summer projects.

Winter

By Anne Hunter

Behold the gloomy tyrant’s awful form 

Binding the captive earth in icy chains; 

His chilling breath sweeps o’er the watery plains, 

Howls in the blast, and swells the rising storm. 

See from its centre bends the rifted tower, 

Threat’ning the lowly vale with frowning pride, 

O’er the scared flocks that seek its sheltering side, 

A fearful ruin o’er their heads to pour. 

While to the cheerful hearth and social board 

Content and ease repair, the sons of want 

Receive from niggard fate their pittance scant; 

And where some shed bleak covert may afford, 

Wan poverty, amidst her meagre host 

Casts round her haggard eyes, and shivers at the frost.

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