ON BRUTAL, double digit subzero days like today, when the cold invades your lungs, when tires crunch against brittle snow, when the cold air cuts sharp like a knife, when cars groan, when schools start two hours late, we Minnesotans wonder if winter will ever end.
It will.
In five or six or seven months we’ll have forgotten the cold and the snow and the ice and the long, dark days of winter as we enjoy…
a summer evening at a county fair…
corn-on-the-cob, garden-fresh potatoes and grilled pork chops…
the dog days of summer…
picking strawberries at a Minnesota berry farm…
native prairie coneflowers in bloom…
the sweet scent of freshly-mown alfalfa…
fishing from a dock or a boat…
instead of on the surface of a frozen lake.
© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Thanks Audrey – Those beautiful photos give me lots to look forward to on this bitterly cold morning. I dreaded going out to see if my van would start this morning since our new digital thermometer said it was 35 below (our old window thermometer said it was only 25 below! So which do I believe and does it matter?) so I was certain I would not be going to my job in Chaska this morning. Joe was going out to start his vehicle so I talked him into starting mine too. They both sit outside all the time and they both started. Lucky me!! Well, guess I am off to work one more day this week. Ain’t a day in mid-January just grand in Minnesota? Harriet
Why do all of these things all seem so unreal and untouchable? It is hard to believe those things are only months away. For some reason those pictures don’t make these long, cold winter days seem any better though. Isn’t it sad when we are SO EXCITED just to have some sun peek through during the day?
Oh, how I needed this post, just the look of it, the warmer tones. Those cornflowers? Those strawberries? Encouragement. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks, Emily and Harriet. I thought the photos would help on a bitterly cold January day like we have today in Minnesota.
Dawn, I’m sorry I couldn’t cheer you. Should I search in my files for a photo of the sun? Stay warm and keep telling yourself, summer is only five months away!
I sure do love those cone flowers and that’s a gorgeous strawberry shot. Time keeps on moving, into the future, even if it’s all cold and wintry now.
One day closer to summer…and strawberries and coneflowers. Glad you liked the images.
Thanks Audrey…I needed these pics!
You’re welcome, Bernie. I needed them, too, which is why I sorted through my photo files for images like these.