Coming on Winter

 "Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it."

Henry David Thoreau, 28 November 1858 journal entry

 

Since the time change, I come home every evening in the dark. I know this is not unique (poor me!), but it is new to me (my current and relatively new job is my first Monday-Friday "regular hours" job), and I'm doing my best to adjust. And while I really don't want to complain, I do have to say I spent the week feeling pretty uninspired. I've been sleeping longer than I would like, and my short stroll to the river every morning before work has surely not been fulfilling my need for time spent outside each day. This sort of winter lethargy is both a natural cycle that humans often don't realize we take part in, and also a challenge to face so as not to fall into the depths of torpor every time winter comes along. So, I am doing my best to get outside every day and notice the great beauty that surrounds me, even on a not-so-sunny day. I relish my weekends for the chance to spend more time immersing myself in nature.

The Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys got a couple of inches of snow yesterday and we experienced the first really-truly-bitingly-cold-windy-winter-day of the season. Two girls from Hellgate High School braved the cold of the Kim Williams Trail, the Hellgate winds gusting westward along the Clark Fork River, with a volunteer and myself. I run an "Outdoor Adventurers" club, and on a side note, two students is our current record for club attendance, which I believe tells you a lot about the low priority of spending time outside for teenagers of today. (I'm sure I'll touch on this subject again soon.) For now I'll just say that the girls were awesome and the day was wickedly cold, but the weather was exciting nonetheless. I really felt the childlike wonder set in and a deep appreciation for the coming of winter.

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.

Today we awoke to a mostly sunny day, much to our delight. The river was as gorgeous as ever. I thought I'd share some pictures.

A pendulum of ice.

A winter dog at heart.

A suspended cupped nest--perhaps that of a warbling vireo.

The dipper that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Hope and Ali have their fuzzy winter coats.

Lolo Pond is totally frozen now.

Could they be more adorable?!

Eiger and Willie enjoying the warmth of the sun filtering in.

I'm looking forward to continuing to step into the rhythms of winter.