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.
A hint of spring with magnolias
Our weather has been gloomy with days of gray. Our landscape has been transitional; warmer temperatures this past week caused some snow to melt, leaving patches of brown grass and piles of dirty snow. But one place is an oasis of spring – the McNeely Conservatory at Como Park. With a walk into the Sunken Garden, one is surrounded visually by spring. Colors of pink and yellow, purple and blue – a wonderful sight to the eyes. With encouragement like this, winter can’t last too much longer and we’ll savor the sights of spring when they arrive.
A celebration of winter
In the midst of a quick January thaw, the St. Paul Winter Carnival began this past week. Temperatures of 40+ degrees do not equate to an expected Minnesota winter. Both snow and ice were melting and people were shedding multiple layers. But an Alberta Clipper brought a return to temps below freezing last night. The snow sculptures at the fairgrounds were all intact today, and the blue sky and sunshine brought people out to participate in winter play. A snow slide had a long line of people, both children and adults, waiting to take a run; the snow maze was the right size for a child to get confused but the adults towered over it; and a simple large mound of snow was a wonderful temptation for kids to scramble and climb up. This snow sculpture was titled “Baby Bunyan,” with a reference to Paul Bunyan as a child. Our celebration of winter will continue for the next few months, until we are able to relish in the short season of spring and melting snow.
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