Soon To Be Spring: Scenes From Snow

Ice crystals, spotted near the shore of Lake Erie.

"Snow fell, undated..." Snow coverage in the Midwest, by my observation, ranges from the above, pristine, with a slight undulation...

...to cratered, ravaged, filthy, cavernous... Perhaps it's not even correct to call the above 'snow,' it's more like 'icy conditions...'

Vegetation and snow interwoven in infinite variety, is nature painting a world with subdued, muted colors.

Man-made objects also provide odd shapes and perspectives...

Taking a crazy, curving path towards the sky, this looks like pussy willow.

Everywhere, it seems the snow is finally in retreat.

And the grass is reappearing.

As are the boots of the intrepid... Just a few more photos...

If at close range, the snows are retreating, from a distance, Lake Erie looks like it is permanently encased in ice.

Wouldn't you just hate to be a bird in winter? Especially the kind that is always parading and squawking around on the shore!

From a few inches to the farthest shore... a sliver of Lake Erie in the distance... And I'm really and truly done with these photographs and done with winter!

A final burst of Philip Larkin:                    

"First Sight"

Lambs that learn to walk in snow

When their bleating clouds the air

Meet a vast unwelcome, know

Nothing but a sunless glare.

Newly stumbling to and fro

All they find, outside the fold,

Is a wretched width of cold.

As they wait beside the ewe,

Her fleeces wetly caked, there lies

Hidden round them, waiting too,

Earth's immeasureable surprise.

They could not grasp it if they knew,

What so soon will wake and grow

Utterly unlike the snow.