Like a hibernating bear...

Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.          ~Anne Morrow Lindberg

Perhaps I have become too accustomed to the mild winters we have had in Indiana recently. I have always claimed to enjoy the winters, and looked forward to any snowfall that came our way. I have scoffed at the discomfort of others when the snow flew, encouraged everyone to get out into the weather and embrace and enjoy it. I have railed against the constant gray skies Indiana has during the winter, remembering instead the skies of my youth in Western New York where it snowed about every three or four days but there were bright sunny days in between the snowstorms.

I must admit to you that this winter I have met my comeuppance... we have had a lot of snowy days. Lots of bitter cold with wind chills way below zero. And in between we have had bright sunny days. And I loved it-- for the first month or so. But the cold and wind and snow and icy roads have gone on and on and on.  And despite the sunny days, I am weary of the cold. Bone-chillingly weary. And I have grown lazy. Like a hibernating bear, all I want to do is sit around the house, eat and knit. I wear multiple layers of sweaters and socks and still feel chilled. I drink hot tea all day. My brain has grown fuzzy with inactivity. I am, as Anne Morrow Lindberg says, half asleep.

We had a little break yesterday. The sun was out in a cloudless, dazzlingly blue sky. The temperature rose above freezing for a few hours in the afternoon. When Lanny called me while he was out running errands to tell me about our creek and an ice dam that had formed, he encouraged me to get the camera and go take some photos.  Perhaps it was all that sun, but I decided to get up and get outside for a change. I bundled up, since there was still a stiff wind blowing. I put on my hiking boots and set out on the icy road toward the bridge over our creek.

The sunlight was dazzling, despite my sunglasses. I felt warmer than I had in weeks though-- the physical activity was warming me from the inside. My head was clearing. I was breathing hard from the cold air and the exertion, and that felt good too.

I arrived at the bridge, about a half mile from our house, to find the creek, which had completely frozen over in the subzero cold, had thawed just enough to have the ice break into huge chunks and flow downstream where the bridge caught it. And there was a jam of ice that extended back past our property-- over half a mile long of gigantic chunks of ice piled up in the creek bed. And the water was flowing under and around all this ice. It had flooded way up to the edge of the woods, as if it was a spring rain flood. The world of our creek had been transformed into something other-worldly and incredibly beautiful in the bright sun. The water and ice shimmered and dazzled and nearly blinded me.

I put the polarizing filter on the camera lens and started snapping photos. I walked beside the creek as well as over it on the bridge. I got lost in the beauty of how Mother Nature can adapt and change the world in an instant.

Today we are bracing for yet again another winter storm. It has returned to gray, bone chilling weather. We are only into the first week of February, so there is a lot of winter yet to endure. I have a feeling this next snow storm won't be the last either...  But like Pa told Laura, I won't let it beat me. I will outlast the winter and when spring finally does arrive I will be very, very ready...

“It can't beat us!" Pa said."Can't it, Pa?" Laura asked stupidly."No," said Pa. "It's got to quit sometime and we don't. It can't lick us. We won't give up."Then Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.”           ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

Here are some of the photos I took yesterday...

The creek from the bridge-- completely dammed up with ice chunks for over 1/2 mile!

On the other side of the bridge-- the creek is flowing normally, dazzling bright in the winter sun...

views from the bank

Thin threads of ice, melting in the winter sun...

From our back yard... the water is where the woods is, the ice fills the creek bed completely. I estimate at least 12 feet of piled up ice lying in the creek bed... It will take until June to melt!!