Second freeze-up; more to come?

Our countryside looks like January. The snow (shower after shower) has finally let up. Temperatures crept back up above freezing, but barely. Pardon my skepticism about assessments that Minnesota’s winters are being diminished by global warming. I’m truly curious to see how much of this may melt before the next snowfall arrives. If the forecast is accurate, I may get to be extra thankful a week from tomorrow as our November thaw sets in.

The roads are clear enough that we got a few errands done today and our travels were uneventful. We have our fingers crossed that the roads dry out instead of (re)freezing. I suspect that the weekend after Thanksgiving we will, as tradition would have it, begin decorating for the holiday season. Most years the outside decorations get hung amidst fallen leaves. This year may involve an exception unless a thaw prevails.

typical conditions for Christmas decorating

Photo by J. Harrington

The Sunrise River pools in Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area are once again ice slush covered. Snow falling and falling on freezing water does not make good ice. This weather volatility really gets messy. I’m glad I’m not looking forward to ice skating on natural ice.

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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Please be kind to each other while you can.

Cycles of transition

Today is National Recycling Day. Although we sometimes think we’re wasting time, we cycled through similar seasons time and again, until we weirded the climate. The big picture pattern is based on the relationship between the sun and the earth, so the solstices and equinoxes should stay pretty much the same, but what happens between those key events may well change a lot unless we do.

We’re halfway through November. It’s just slightly more than five weeks until Winter Solstice, which occurs locally at 3:48 pm on December 21. From then until March 20 at 4:24 pm it will be astronomical winter, which will last for 88 days, 23 hrs, 36 minutes. Spring will then last 92 days, 17 hrs, 33 mins, followed by summer at 93 days, 15 hrs, 52 mins. I suppose we can claim this is proof that Mother Nature is merciful since summer is five days longer than winter, but that would probably get a number of Minnesota’s winter lovers on our case. On the other hand, we’re only 60% of the way through autumn and it’s been snowing for the past three days in a row, so winter lovers get no sympathy here.

sandhill cranes at Crex Meadows

Photo by J. Harrington

Small or shallow ponds are once again getting iced-in. Canada geese are feeding in harvested corn fields. Minnesotans are again proving that, over last summer, they forgot how to drive in the snow, and I’m embarrassed I never realized how many sandhill cranes flock into (onto?) Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in November. This year set a record we've read. We missed an autumn trip to Crex Meadows in Wisconsin this year, but that makes the prospect of a trip next April even more appealing, although we may have to defer until May if we want to diminish the chances of getting caught  in a spring snowstorm.

The pumpkins we dumped under the pear tree a couple of days ago have disappeared. I’ve not been up there to check for tracks, and the persistent snowfall has probably filled in whatever tracks might have been left, but I’m betting some local deer enjoyed a nice snack. We’ve seen none to speak of on the property for weeks now.

How Soon

By Gordon Henry Jr.

The story goes from in a rainfall

to sister walking a field

browned autumn. And when she arrives

winter has come, so the old man

rises from his chair, picks up

matches, pipes and tools, and

walks out to begin again.

 

The sculptures grow by the day,

birds in ice, recognizable

eagles, a bear who began

as a man in a moment of dance.

He does this in ice, all

winter carving at dawn,

carving at dusk.

 

And sister after walking a field

browned autumn, arrives, watches

from the east window, waits,

goes out to him in spring,

taps him on the shoulder

and points to the pools

of water he's standing over.

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