A different kind of Christmas bird

The Daughter Person and Son-In-Law just stopped by, looking for some bits and pieces for a Christmas project they're working on. Christmas is family time in more ways than one. The lights are on on the tree and Sigurd, the canoeing Christmas voyageur has a string of lights brightening his canoe. We're doing well for happy holiday vibes as long as we don't look outside at yet another gray, dreary, sky or at the thermometer, which barely made it into double digits this afternoon. It would seem even more Christmasy if a white pine had the fragrance of a balsam or a Fraser fir. Maybe a scented candle will be brought by a ghost of Christmas future.

our home grown tree with lights, no ornaments yet

Photo by J. Harrington

Those who track such things tell us that Minnesota is getting warmer and wetter. They even have a neat graph showing how our Winters actually are warming.

Most of Minnesota’s observed warming has been when it’s coolest. Since 1970, winter has warmed 13 times faster than summer, and nights have warmed 55% faster than days. The frequencies of -35F readings in northern Minnesota and -25F readings in the south have fallen by up to 90%. We don’t get as cold as we once did, and even though Minnesota always will see periodic severe cold spells, the long-term decline in cold extremes is all but guaranteed to continue.

a Christmas cardinal, Mr.  Red Bird

Photo by J. Harrington

I suspect the fact that we're no longer as young as we used to be, and our joints aren't as spry as they once were, may have a lot to do with our inability to appreciate the good points of our warming trend. Or, gaining from -25℉ to -20℉ or even -15℉ might be akin to what our lawyer friends refer to as a distinction without a difference. Fortunately, there are occasional surprises that brighten the prospects, even on yet another dreary day. A male Cardinal, perched on an oak branch, or the sunflower seed feeder, is enough to bring a piece of the Christmas spirit to the neighborhood, regardless of whether the neighbors have put up lights. We got lucky with our camera the other day and captured the shot above.

Red Bird

by Mary Oliver

Red bird came all winter

Firing up the landscape

As nothing else could.

Of course I love the sparrows,

Those dun-colored darlings,

So hungry and so many.

I am a God-fearing feeder of birds,

I know he has many children,

Not all of them bold in spirit.

Still, for whatever reason-

Perhaps because the winter is so long

And the sky so black-blue,

Or perhaps because the heart narrows

As often as it opens-

I am grateful

That red bird comes all winter

Firing up the landscape

As nothing else can do.

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