Daylight savings time hits me at a really bad time. It usually happens a few days before my birthday each year and the sudden change to early darkness combined with the realization that it is, in fact, getting colder and I am getting older sends my mood into a tailspin.But this year, I decided to adopt my native Minnesotan attitude.
In northern Minnesota there really are only two seasons - summer and winter. Summer is perfect for canoeing, fishing, hiking, exploring, and swatting mosquitoes but winter....winter is when the fun really happens. Skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, snowmobiling, hockey, ice skating, curling, you name it and they have invented something fun to do in the snow and cold.
Given the recent plunge into this polar weather, my suspicion is that we are in for a long, cold winter and so, with that in mind, rather than dread it, I am embracing it - the cold and all its loveliness, its fun, its challenges, and especially the escape from it into a warm and toasty house with family and friends to cheer the way until Spring. Each of the following pictures is a reminder of some of the beauty of winter.
Crisp, cold mornings when the smell of wood smoke foretells of a warm house with a cozy fire.
Quiet snowfalls when the earth is muffled and the snowflake crystals glimmer in the lights.
Watching in awe as tiny birds fly about in the deepest of snows and frigid temperatures surviving in a way that I cannot begin to fathom.
The wake of a big snow storm when the digging out brings people and
neighbors together for help and assistance.
The thrill of the hill
with hot chocolate and the recounting of wipeouts that follow.
Hoarfrost mornings
Animals and their simple
tolerance for what is
Roadways that are simply made for skiing or snowmobiling,
but not really driving
The beauty and brutality that is Winter
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