According to the calendar, winter has officially started, but Old Man Winter doesn’t know he is doing since for a while this morning it was raining, or actually freezing rain, but now it is snowing again. And snowing means another cloudy day which is about the fifteen day straight day of no sun – I am starting to wonder if it still exists.
Start of Winter
Since today is the last day of autumn, one more colorful autumn picture is needed especially since another cloudy dreary day and looking out at stark bare trees.
End of Autumn
You often hear about a curious cat, but calves are curious too and it is much easier to handle one curious cat than a herd of curious calves!
Curious Calves
With the “official start” of winter coming soon according to the calendar, even though it snowed on October 3 this year, I figured another autumn picture was needed on this cloudy morning with more snow flakes gently falling from the gray sky since it is still autumn.
Autumn’s Colorful Hues
This donkey looks as disgusted as I feel about the weather since the promised sunshine hasn’t appeared for eleven days now and with snowflakes flying in the air, I don’t know if there is much hope for any hint of sunshine today either.
Disgusted Donkey
The Amnicon River splits before the Upper Falls in Wisconsin’s Amnicon State Park, creating an rocky island about 500 feet wide and long, and the 55 foot Horton Bridge spans the river to provide access across the river. The bowstring bridge is historically significant due both to its age and unusual construction.
In 1897 and 1898, Charles M. Horton, while working in Duluth and Superior, obtained a number of patents for bridges that he claimed made them stronger, lighter and more durable. In addition, he said his design would allow workers to quickly assemble the structure without expensive machinery, tools and labor. His method called for using arched beams secured with hooks and clips rather than rivets and bolts.
The bridge was originally used as highway bridge and moved to the park in 1930 and a roof was added in 1939.
Horton Covered Bridge
Normally when the snow disappears, I would be out looking for the early wildflowers, but since it is just a fluke in the weather pattern which caused the winter snow to melt temporarily, there won’t be a chance to spot a blooming flower, not for several months yet. You might get lucky to find some foliage still somewhat green or a dry bull thistle head (which a kitten found and was proudly carrying in its mouth).
Still Have to Wait
You often hear the saying that ‘timing is everything’. Well my timing was off this fall, since whenever I had an appointment and would be traveling somewhere, either the autumn leaves hadn’t turned yet or in this case, I was too late and the leaves had already fallen off the trees. With a ring of trees encompassing the church, I imagine it would have been a beautiful view, but one I didn’t get to witness this year.
Although this view of the church might look very similar today, if there was sunshine instead of thick fog, since after two months of early winter, it was warm enough over night to melt most of the snow away (at least temporarily that is). Built in 1922, this country church still is standing proudly.
Saint Johns Church
With another very foggy day, it is hard to see the trees across the lawn so no chance of being able to able to see across a field. But then there are no pretty autumn leaves to see anymore if it wasn’t foggy, although you might see some corn yet in the fields waiting to be harvested.
The wet, damp conditions haven’t allowed the corn to dry down enough to store the kernels without drying the corn which is an added expense. And since 95% of corn farms are family farms, extra added expense is never desired so it is a gamble on letting the corn dry naturally to save dying cost but it needs to be harvested before the snow get too deep so they can get into the fields with a combine or it can’t be harvested until spring which causes a lost of bushels when the snow snaps ears to the ground.
Corn efficiency has increased over the years, from an average 38 bushels per acre in 1950 to 153 bushels per acre in 2010.
Corn to Harvest
You sometimes hear the term ‘sands of time’, an English idiom relating the passage of time to the sand in an hourglass and that time is a finite commodity which is gradually running out.
The phase ‘Footprints on the sands of time’ was used in a poem called A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time
On a calm day, your footprints in the sand might last a while but on a stormy day, the next wave erases all evidence of your passage on the beach.
Sands of Time
