After a week of gloomy, dreary skies a beautiful blue appeared today to help Saint Paul celebrate it’s Winter Carnival. With temps in the 20’s, hundreds of people were dressed warmly, soaking up the Vitamin D, and enjoying the snow sculptures that were completed for the carnival. Perhaps because we’re all longing for warmer climates, this sculpture titled “Under A Rest,” received the Peoples Choice Award. Complete with cacti and little gophers popping up from the ground, the cowboy seemed quite content to take a long winter’s nap in his frozen state.
Saint Paul
The beauty of an autumn dawn
Our fall temperatures have continued, and last Friday dawned with a noticeable crispness in the air. The wind was still at this early hour, and the sun was just starting to reflect off the clouds above as it made its way over the horizon. At Como Park I was able to find a perfect spot to take in the sunrise. A small pond on the golf course captured the reflection of the clouds above, and the silhouettes of the trees. Some trees still have their leaves while others have lost them to the autumn winds, and the grasses are in full bloom – their swan song before winter moves in. This season seems to be the shortest one, no matter how hard we try to hold onto the fall colors.
Scent of lilacs
Not only has spring blossomed into our visual senses, but it has now spread its delightful scents throughout the air. With a few days of warming temperatures the lilacs quickly burst into bloom. How wonderful to be stopped in my tracks when their scent was being carried by the light breeze across the yard! To me, that is the true sign of spring’s arrival and the dismissal of the dark of winter.
The return of spring
Finally! The colors of spring have returned to our Minnesota landscape. The white of winter gave way to the brown, prior to the green of spring. And now the flowers have burst into bloom, adding their yellows and pinks. Not only has the landscape brightened, but peoples’ moods have been buoyed by the bright colors too. A bed of daffodils was showcased in front of a showy field of tulips — the best of spring all in one spot, and all blooming at the same time. When I was a child, we would make “baskets” out of colored construction paper, put flowers in them, and hang them on the doors of our neighbors to celebrate May Day. I’m intending this post as the present-day equivalent to my readers. Happy May and spring!
Spring’s light
In my longing for the colors of spring, I wandered into the McNeely Conservatory at Como Park. My spirits rose as I took in the colors and smells of our long-awaited season of spring – an array of lilies, tulips, ranunculus, and daffodils. Flowers the colors of the sun — the light of spring that we crave so much after the cold and white of winter. From underneath these tulips the light from above made them glow and shimmer – an ephemeral hint at their fragility and short-lived life in the transition between winter and summer.
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