Winter wonderless land

Ugly is the only word that describes this winter month. Ever since the Christmas vacations, the winter look has deteriorated here in Suttons Bay. I am not a big fan of snow or cold, but I am even a lesser fan of ugly brown ice that seems to plague this month. We had a wonderful warming trend here, commonly called a "winter thaw," but it has also rained. The snow has thusly melted, lowering the depth of the snow, and all the walkways have turned to a hard and very slippery ice. Yesterday, Sunday, was just horrible, since the rain turned our parking lot into a very ugly ice skating rink. I spent an hour in the afternoon chopping a channel through the ice so that the lake that was backing up toward the church door could drain into the runoff ditch. Today, Monday, is warm, though we have been told that it will freeze tonight, turning everything to ice. Oh my! What a mess we are in for. I only hope that we get 8-12 inches of snow to cover this mess up.

The good thing is that we are nearly at the end of January. That means that February is just around the corner (duh) and the beginning of Spring Training for the Cincinnati Reds. I love the sound of that, "Spring" Training. Sp;ring is my favorite season of the year. I love the warming of spring, watching all the trees and bushes come to life, and watching winter pass into history. Won't be so long now.

Meanwhile, there are still some winter things to do. Most of those things have to do with indoors activities. Nonetheless, there will still be plenty of snow yet to dig out, but the digging gets easier as the days go on.