Reflections on Imbolc 2021
It's a subtle season. It still feels like winter and that spring is so far away. In a lot of ways that is true. However, if I stand still long enough the hints of spring are there. It's been a pretty mild winter here in Minnesota this year. We haven't had any polar vortexes to speak of so far and in fact, we didn't even get below zero once in January. This has only ever happened two other times in the 150 years we've been keeping track of that kind of stuff here on official records. I bought a new fancy camera with the hope of capturing some of the wildlife that visits our suburban backyard. Yesterday I was out on the deck trying to get some shots of the bird visitors. It was in the 30's which is warm for January, and while cloudy, I was out on my deck in just a hoodie. The snow dripping off my roof. Chickadees are very brave and have no problem visiting the feeders while I am outside, but others are very shy. I noticed a flash of orange in the arborvitae ...