A sure cure for stress is a weekend trip to a lake up north. Add in a group of wonderful friends and a cabin on a lake and everyone comes away in better spirits. It was ladies weekend on Lake Mary, south of Alexandria. We got out of our cars on Friday night, walked into the cabin and left our stress behind. From then on it was relaxing, laughing, resting, and sharing — it was decompression of the best kind. Throw in a beautiful sunset with the slightest of water ripple near the shore, a sky full of twinkling stars, a deck overlooking the lake with the warmth of the sun on our backs, and wonderful conversation; five friends found it hard to pull ourselves away today to return to the cities and our upcoming Monday.
spring
The beauty and scent of magnolias
With the warmth of the sun, our magnolia tree burst into bloom this past week. The delicate white petals broke from the catkins that had kept them safe throughout the winter. I spent a delightful evening photographing amongst the blossoms. Not only was it a feast for my eyes, but I was treated to the wonderful sweet smell that they give off. A slight breeze would stir and my senses were filled with the light aroma and the brightness of white surrounding me. Perhaps what makes the magnolias so special to me is the brevity with which they are in full bloom. As the week has passed, the wind and rain have already tossed many of the blossoms to the ground, and those that remain are no longer at their peak. Soon the flowers will all be gone and the tree will be covered in green leaves.
Pasque flowers
Snow last Thursday, followed by 65 degrees and sunshine — it all provided moisture and then warmth for the early blooming wildflowers in Minnesota. Amidst a gravel prairie about 50 miles from the Twin Cities is a place where pasque flowers are abundant. And if your timing is good, the entire prairie is filled with these small diminutive flowers. Only two to five inches tall, they are hard to notice from a distance, but it becomes quite magical when you see an entire hillside covered by these flowers. With the warmth of the spring sun, and the golden colors of the late evening, we spent a wonderful few hours amongst the pasque flowers.
A rite of spring
The in-between season of spring — when we hope for the colors that were vacant in winter. Spring in Minnesota is volatile, swinging from snow to rain to warm to cold. We’ve experienced it all this past week, but we also know that spring will prevail and color will return. I was craving some of that color and resorted to store-bought tulips (since the ones in the ground are barely one-inch shoots right now). Every time I walked by the tulips I was reminded that spring will come, that warmth is around the corner, and that the Easter tradition of hope remains a part of us.
Early spring daybreak
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.
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