The Hard, Splendid Season...

Beauty often obscures danger.

That’s sometimes true of women, certainly. But we’re talking wilderness here.

When masked by the inestimable beauty of winter in the northwoods, danger is immediate and exaggerated ‘cause maybe there’s no getting out of it short of being carried by others after the fact.

Never a place for fools, the wilderness frozen is damned inhospitable. I get that skiers, snowmobilers, ice fishermen and businesses built around all that see things different. To them I wish winter in abundance ‘til sometime late in March when it’ll be getting around to my turn and about stinkin’ time, too.

I’ve been in the field all week and am traveling today so you’ll just have to wait until next Thursday to hear why I wasn’t among the billion or so people watching the Super Bowl.  ‘Cause as it turned out, winter was singularly unimpressed by my plans for Super Bowl Sunday.

In fact, you might even wonder whether the Gods of Ice & Snow enjoyed a good laugh at my expense. That is, if the real world can be said to take any notice of us at all, which it doesn’t. Such monumental indifference is a double-edged sword, let me tell ‘ya.

Until then, please enjoy these bits of winter's singular beauty and from the comfort of your own home, no less…

While the dark season is cruel to us and we'd not survive it without the comfort of construct, Other Nations press forward all the same. What falls dead and fast frozen to the forest floor, ravens eat. And if you'll look closely, you'll see the snow on both sides of the river is littered with tracks. Those are left by otters who dive through holes in the ice to course the barely liquid river beneath and feast on trout the winter through.

Life goes on.