April madness

Chickadee on six foot snow bank

The long winter continues.

Another eight inches of snow yesterday morning, give or take three inches.  (It could have been eleven inches.  We’ve ceased measuring in late April.)

I am really OK with it.  No need to offer condolences.  We escaped to Florida earlier in the month, thereby easing Endless Winter Restlessness Syndrome.

I’m not sure the other locals are faring as well.  One senses a certain madness in the flitting eyes of grocery shoppers.  Alcohol sales are up.  People tend not to make sense anymore.  Just sayin’.  The livin’ is not easy up here in Cabin Fever land.

Hullabaloo

During the snowstorm

Such a hullabaloo in the Northern forest!

Spring Seed Boy fell in love with young Snow Maiden.

Oh, it’s forbidden, don’t you know!

Icy beauty

The Winter Queen, in her fury, locked Spring Seed Boy in a shed behind the six-foot snow bank.

Spring Seed Boy cries and it rains.  Young Snow Maiden weeps and it snows.  The Winter Queen gripes and it snows some more.

The oregano silently stews.

The Sun King tried, yes he tried, to negotiate a truce.  He shined his hardest, but to no avail.

The Mourning Doves in the bird feeder mourn.  The poor robins, just in from the sunny south, look in vain for worms beneath the endless white snow.  The bear refuse to leave hibernation.  The trees refuse to leaf.  The ice on the lake refuses to melt.

The light of an ordinary trip through pea soup fog to Marquette

How Lake Superior looks in Marquette

Here we are in Marquette, a town 78 miles from our Little House in the Big Woods.  It’s the Big City, kids.  It even has a Starbucks!  How I love the city–just as much as the woods…

Barry has to cover the Baraga Track Meet for the L’Anse Sentinel.  He–I mean we–have been covering this track meet for more years than you have fingers and toes.

Last year he limped in  to cover aforementioned event with a walker less than two weeks after his first knee replacement.  Oh, wasn’t he cute limping around!  (I wouldn’t know–I don’t stay for the track meet anymore.)  Someone snapped his picture and posted it on Facebook.  He was a sports reporter/hero for five minutes!

Be kind

Reaching for nourishment

Be kind, dear one, be kind.

If you can find it in your heart, be kind to one another, for everyone you meet–not just the downtrodden, not just the homeless, not just the friend dying from cancer–everyone you meet–faces some sort of anguish, some sort of fear, some sort of challenge.

Ladybug in parsley and other winter stories.

Ladybug in parsley. View One.

Life is so weird.

After writing yesterday’s post about my current camera conundrum (say that fast three times) I am suddenly feeling re-inspired about taking pictures.

Twice today have dug out the Canon Rebel and photographed.

The first photo shoot involved a ladybug discovered in parsley purchased at the grocery store.

Imagine!  A bright red ladybug crawling through deep velvet-green parsley.

Perhaps some folks might be disturbed at insects in their groceries, thinking them vile creatures worth annihilating immediately, if not sooner.

Not I.

I delighted in the bright red crawling creature.  Isn’t she beautiful?  Isn’t she vibrant?  Doesn’t she remind one of spring as a possibility?

“Twizzle twazzle twozzle twome”

Our woodpile

How many of you know the incantation “Twizzle twazzle twozzle twome”?

Think carefully before you answer this rather innocent question.

If you know the answer, it may date you.

What a difference a day makes!

It’s melting, it’s melting…

Today the sun is shining in Lake Superior land.

It’s 20 degrees and the hockey game’s on…  (Sorry, Jimmy Buffett fans, I can’t help myself quoting his lyrics lately.)  The only part of the last sentence that is true is that it’s 20 degrees. (-7 C for all of you who have no American affiliation.) It’s stunningly warm!

The freezer is still intact, thank you kindly, Jimmy Buffett.

Sum-sum-summertime!

Yesterday I vetoed the on-line world.

Almost.  Did not visit Facebook or WordPress or even my personal email.  (Did visit email and Internet at work.  One must, you know, if one seeks to retain one’s job.)

Deer sleeping in the house and stuck car in the driveway

Dream deer

Weekend dream:  I was feeding a deer outside by our wood pile.  Guess what?  A big hunk of raw steak.  (Unconscious impulses arising after a week of detox eating only fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and lentils?  Even though I don’t even like steak?)

Then arrived the best part of the dream.  The deer pattered in through the front door and tentatively came inside our Little House in the Big Woods.  About four of them curled in little balls and slept.  It felt peaceful and right.

This morning I aimed to work at the school early.  Awoke at 5:30 a.m. and stoked the fire.  Yoga-stretched and sat quietly on the couch in the basement feeling the hush of early morning, catching glimpses of snowflakes through the window.  Remembered the deer dream and smiled softly.

“How much snow did we get?” Barry asked when he tumbled out of bed.

“Dunno,” I replied.  ”Four or five inches?”

What doesn’t kill you may heal you and other frozen stories

1. It’s three below zero right now.  (Tree below zero according to that old Finnish joke.  Must look for photo to illustrate.)

Here you go

2.  It’s damn cold.  I started Barry’s car this morning when the thermometer shivered at 6 below zero (-21.1 C).  It’s all thanks to Grandma’s 1969 or 1970 one-piece snowmobile suit with the orange-red racing stripes.  When and if that snowmobile suit disintegrates, he’s on his own.  He can start his own car.  The suit is ripping in one place.  He suggested I sew it.  I suggested he sew it.  Tit for tat, as they say.  (I like rushing out in the freezing cold on stay-at-home mornings sometimes, the inner engine pumping in the dark, clouds of vapor rising from the face toward stars, the fingers not yet numb.  This is not a daily obligation, so don’t any women libbers fret.  I do it because it’s invigorating and strangely fun.)