Spring has been fickle here in Minnesota. From cold to snow to rain to warm – we’ve had a bit of everything this week. I’ve already heard the welcome return of the red-winged blackbirds singing, and the lake ice has started to diminish. I was at Lake Johanna yesterday before sunrise. The winter air was crisp and cold at 19 degrees when it hit my face and hands as I got out of the car, but my ears could hear the geese and the ducks that were splashing in the open water near the shoreline, and in the distance a woodpecker’s repetitive hammering was contributing to the song. With all this cacophony the sun was illuminating the eastern sky in pinks and orange. It seems that everything is in anxious anticipation of the season of spring.
landscapes
Winter lines
Yesterday was a blue-sky winter day with mild temps but a strong wind. With plenty of sunshine I wanted to get out to enjoy the weather before the temperatures plummeted to below zero. A little before sunset I went to one of the area golf courses to get some exercise. As the sun was sinking in the western sky, the shadow lines grew long and longer across the unbroken snow. They seemed to stretch much further than the height of the trees, reaching as far to the east as possible. Winter is the prime season of beautiful, low-in-the-sky light, accentuated even more at daybreak and sunset.
Sometimes it’s the light
The weather was cold yesterday – barely up to zero with a biting north wind of 20+ mph. With those conditions I chose to work inside for the day. I walked past the south window several times, looking at the patterns in the snow as they changed throughout the day. Eventually they called me outside to photograph. The sun is still relatively low in the sky, making for some wonderful lines as it slid through the fence and threw its light on our meager snow. There were bits of leaves and tree debris that danced across the pattern, and a rabbit had made its way across the yard and its footprints slashed through the light and the dark. Sometimes it’s the light that pulls the scene together and tells the story.
A walk on a mild winter’s day
Our unusually mild winter continued this past week. Although we had one snowfall of two inches, our landscape is only dotted with snow – many fields and open spaces are devoid of white. We took advantage of the mild temperatures to go for a hike at Long Lake Regional Park, a lovely oasis in the heart of the cities. The sky was gray and the park was quiet, but it was good to be outside in the fresh air. We followed a number of trails, some that were inland and some that were close to the lakes. This footbridge went over a passage between two of the lakes and had much thinner ice underneath it as the water flowed between the two bodies of water. On many sections of trails we could see the tracks of fat winter tires left by bicyclists. Our return trip back to the truck was made easier by walking over the frozen water of Rush Lake.
Dancing in the sunlight
I love the simplicity of our winter landscape. The white snow clears the distractions and leaves a clean canvas. As I was out for a walk one day I found these plants above the snow. With the sun behind them and their shadows splayed out over the white snow, it appeared they were dancing with their shadows. Similar to a water surface reflection, however the white brings everything down to the basics. Just like in the cold of winter, we look to the basics of warmth, protection from the cold and wind, and the optimism that spring will be on our doorstep eventually.
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