A Minnesota Winter's Day

The realization during this third and traditionally coldest Minnesota week in January of living in a place where the temperature never varies between 75 and 85 degrees F, the days and nights are almost always the same length, and wearing clothing is purely decorative, makes me want to record my thoughts of winter before they disappear on that tropical isle.

A New Snowfall

How glorious it is to first look out your window after a new snowfall! You are inside all cozy and warm while outside the world is suddenly transformed as if by white magic fairy dust. The day is brilliant and objects sparkle in sunlight. You listen for the expectant sound of scraping snow plows, your neighbors snow blower, the whir of spinning automobile tires to break the muffled silence. This is the moment you know that is unique to you and those others who share this winter's day.

Ice SkatingYou put one stockinged foot into a boot with a steel blade on it, then the other foot. You lace up your boots tightly. You hobble out from the warming house and step onto ice. Ice that wonder of nature! Ice that is water or is it water that is ice? You are now gliding along, pushing one leg in front of the other. The air bites at your face, but you laugh at it. You are embracing the cold world and defying rational thought. You are ice skating.

Lanterns of Ice

Lanterns made of ice emit an opaque glow to light the long winter night. Like the cold, they disappear in spring.