The tenuous nature of the season was on full display last Saturday as we took a walk with Mr. David Byrne on leash down the Kawishiwi Falls hiking trail down to the falls. In a tiny vernal-type pool nestled in the shallow of the rock cliffs, snow melt had frozen over with a skim ice crust and trapped the intricate five-pointed star of a woven spider web. There was no sign of the weaver. I snapped a picture and hoped for contrast. It wasn’t going to last long. Before we’d made it back up to the car, the whole thing would likely have dissolved into water and the mastery of design would only be a memory.
This coming Saturday, as of now, the temps are supposed to be in the 20s instead of 50s. We might get more snow. This is, as we’ve all said before, April in the Arrowhead. Constant is fleeting in Minnesota.
This morning was springy though, as signified by the songs of the birds outside my bedroom windows that began around 3 a.m. juncos, song sparrows, robins, starlings and an occasional red-winged blackbird. It was a chorus that I woke to and I haven’t heard singing on into mid-morning for many a month.
