A Rather Short Walk

Winter's resurgence was short-lived. Thanks to temperature swings, ice storms, rain, and plenty of wind, the snows of early February have been slowly disintegrating into sodden, icy heaps. The earth is still too cold to absorb all the runoff, so fields are sporting large, unofficial skating rinks where water has pooled and frozen.

Sunday was so beguilingly sunny and mild (37 F! break out the shorts!) that Mr. M and I took a drive to a small park on the Fox River, where we hoped to walk a section of the Ice Age Trail.

We were surprised to see so much open water:

Mr. M crossing a branch of the river:

And there's the ice we expected to see:

We crossed the empty park and slithered down an icy slope to find the trail living up to its name:

Ice Age indeed....

Mr. M turned back at this point, but I went a little farther in hopes that the trail might clear.

By the side of the path was a fallen tree, covered in green moss and tiny shooting stems of rust-color:

The path turned left, crossing a wine-dark stream bordered with pale dry grass and reddening dogwood...

...then led into a frozen marsh, where icy puddles predominated. Time to turn back.

One last glimpse of the still-partly-frozen river:

Then into the warm car and home.

On the drive back, we saw some sandhill crane in a field. The wild geese are coming back too, and little birds have singing like anything the last few mornings.

Signs of an early spring? We'll see.

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How's your weather?

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