Winter in the Midwest

Ya, ya, ya, ya, winter can be a bitch. I will admit I did not get out enough due to the cold and the wind. It just challenged us and made the stove so comfortable it seemed easirer to read and write and pontificate. I was relaxed, not racked with guilt, not comatose, but snug in the glow of the fire. Yes, I complained here and there and the pain of not being able to ice fish was staggering but sweet Jesus, the idea of being out on the ice,(not the final metaphorical ice) was not in my realm of commitment, not now.

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I enjoy the beauty of snow formations, as long as I can see them from the window of our warm home, warm vehicle, or weather permitting, say 10 degrees or above and no wind, from the trail to Skunk Lake . The falling snow is wonderful but if driven by a minus 10 degree wind, my weakness comes out, or is it age. We tried to be brave, to make a go of it but it would seem that after all that time, all that winter, we hit the trail only six times. Had we had to check the trap line on a daily basis, we would have gathered no plue, told no stories and disappeared into the dreams of Dr. Zhivago. I feel bad about it because it was a goal to get out and be apart of the cold, the winter, the Wisconsin life, but 62 days, or what ever it was, of night-time below zero dampened our spirit. It was just too much.

We are still not discouraged because we know that this cold, this blowing cold, these November winds, keeps this area clean of development, clean of population growth. Some complain and they leave, some have been here for years and tire of it, but we have held strong knowing what we have is good. We just have to keep saying, "Embrace the winter. Do not complain". It is a thing of beauty. It brings the balance of weather and there is summer, fall and spring, oh yes spring.

So today as this spring creeps in, I can look back and see the beauty while the maple sap flows. The Ice discs, little platelets,  of my brother's stream and Mike's ice tables are but a small sampling of winter's sculptures and beauty.They noticed them so it must be they too are taken in. Mike M. put it this way, "After this beautiful, magical, winter I'm thinking of starting a new religion, worshiping ice ........ in caves, ravines, glasses of scotch, anywhere ......... "Go with the flow" will be the only commandment and any other rules will be carved in ice ......... every new religion needs a descriptive name, so I'm open to suggestions ........."

I feel warmer now as if the winter laid the ground work for embracing this warmth. It is good.