A Morning White Out

7:08

Trudging Home

First Signs Of Spring: Goldfinch Returns

It's a 30º morning as winter seems to still hang around.  Snow, wet snow, is predicted on and off much of the day.  The car is covered and I will be out shoveling the driveway once again, like yesterday morning and many mornings over the past month. A few fishing tents are out already, taking advantage of the warming mornings.

 

Monday was the beginning of warmer weather by that I mean the temperatures rose into the 30's part of the day.  We knew we wanted to get in as much cross-country skiing over the next few days before it becomes too mushy to ski.  We decided to wait until late morning, not sure why.  We were off by 11:00, looking for a good place to ski, driving to a couple of possibilities but none had a place to park so we ended up parking at the former Medical Building on #426 just outside of Mayville.  It's the Portage Trail/Trolley Line Nature Trail.  We have walked it during various seasons, perhaps skied it once a couple of years ago.  So we know it.  We were surprised that it was groomed but no one had been on it in quite a while so that the trail was basically virgin, untouched by snowmobiles or skiers.  We were out a good hour, stopping and heading back only when we hit a brief blizzard of ice and snow pelting our faces. Evie loved it of course. It was fun and easy skiing,  with a firm base, lots of snow-covered trees, a great place to cross country ski.

Blizzard

We did not get home until 1:00, tired from our drive looking for a trail and skiing.  Fortunately, we did not have to worry about lunch, just throw a couple of pieces of pizza in the oven and heat them up.  After lunch and an episode of  Balthazar, I returned to my Swedish detective novel, The Man Who Went Up In Smoke.  By later afternoon, after a nap, I finished it.  It's an old fashion detective novel, with too much description and very slow to develop.  It's by a Swedish couple, the harbingers of Swedish noir, Maj Sjowall, and Per Wahloo, That was all I accomplished during the afternoon and Evie kicked back as well.  

Before

After

For dinner, I felt like hot dogs for some reason.  So Evie fired them up, made a salad, heated up some man n cheese and we had dinner.  My dogs were smothered in mustard, onions, and topped with a dill pickle, sort of Chicago style.  We watched a couple of episodes of Apple TV's Losing Alice, a series neither one of us is crazy about but will stick with it.  We also watched a depressing documentary called Free Britney, about Britney Spear's meteoric rise to fame, the deleterious effects on her, the result of paparazzi harassment, and media frenzy, leading to her depression and loss of freedom,  a court-sanctioned conservatorship by her father for the past ten years.  It's eye-opening and sad to see how the media took advantage of her, treated her as something to be used for their profit, with no concern for her well-being, her family, her sanity.