As much complaining as has been circulating regarding central Illinois's record winter, every time it starts snowing again, I can't help smiling. I love winter, I always have. It's beautiful.
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| Sunrise over the rooftops well below zero last week. |
And thanks to good tires and owning a lot of wool socks and sweaters, I still do, even after endless piles of snow and even in the subzero temps.
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| With the last 4+ inches that fell yesterday, we are getting some very non-Peoria appearing piles! |
In the past few weeks, we've had white afternoons followed by sunny, sparkling mornings. I've never really seen snow hang on this long, and so nicely. It's been so cold, there's not even slush to blacken the roadside piles! The first, sparkling sunny rays are a bit hard to catch.
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| Sunrise silhouettes... every house trying to heat up. |
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| The prairie wind whips crisp shapes over the eves. |
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| Lines and Outlines |
That being said, today as I was kicking back over coffee in the sunny kitchen catching up on medical charts, I suddenly realized that there was a funny, persistent trickling sound gurgling on all sides. For the half hour prior I kept relegating the sound to the washing machine. At some point, it dawned on me that this was not the right sound-object connection. I popped over to the window: sure enough - 12 inches of snow is rapidly melting away before my eyes!
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| Completely covered this morning, now dripping in 45 degree weather! |
Not only that, but the early morning cardinals had given the tree tops over to a happy flock of purple finches.
That made me excited for spring. The compost pile will start composting again. All the little changes I made last year will hopefully return in full bloom. We might enlarge the garden to accommodate the expansive strawberry patch that took off last autumn... But until then, we've got snow, beautiful snow.
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| Tuesday, February 18, 2014 |
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