A Tale of Two Cities

With yesterday's snowfall, the springing of spring was unsprung, the phenological clock reset to its proper position of winter in February, the green grass, the early insects all hidden under six inches of new snow. And with the disappearance of the insects and early greenery my naturalist activities were relegated to a few photos of the buds on front yard bushes, the Honeysuckle and the Hydrangea.

The curious thing about this particular snowfall is how abruptly the accumulation tapered off from south to north. Ten miles south of town a foot of snow fell; ten miles north of town no snow fell. Driving from Northfield to Burnsville was like driving from one season to the next, winter to spring, from snow everywhere you looked to a landscape of dormant grasses turning green. A tale of two cities, on two sides of a snowstorm. Not nearly as abrupt as those summer downpours where it is raining in the backyard and dry and sunny in the frontyard, but almost.

It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
– Charles Dickens, from A Tale of Two Cities

Posted on February 26, 2017 04:42 AM by