The Last of Winter in Wisconsin

Ice Out - Not Yet © 2015 Bo Mackison

Ice Out – Not Yet © 2015 Bo Mackison

The snow is melting. A fine layer of sand coats many of the road surfaces, but the ice is gone. Heavy winter coats are back in the far corner of the closet, though the lighter winter coats are still front and center. Although there are a few piles of snow in parking lots, most of the snow is gone.  The last remains of winter remain on the lakes.

It was a long, cold, unrelenting winter. Once the cold in early January took hold, there were no warm spells, and even  ten days ago we were still seeing -2˚ in the early morning. But a week of sun and warming temperatures, and winter has disappeared and a muddy early spring has arrived.

Only the lakes are still winter bound. And parts of the larger lakes are still covered with 12-15 inches of ice.

Not ready for winter to warm into spring? Head down to the lakes for a last look at winter’s grip.

A Crack in Everything

Danger - Thin Ice

There is a Crack © 2012 Bo Mackison

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

~  Anthem by Leonard Cohen

The link is to the song on YouTube. Interesting, thought-provoking lyrics, interesting talk-sing voice. I love the line “forget your perfect offering.” I don’t usually post a lot of quotes on one post, but I kept finding quotes about imperfection that I wanted to remember, and this seemed like a good place for this compilation. It is a good thing to remember — no one is perfect. Imperfect is human, humans are imperfect.

Both our senses and our passions are a supply to the imperfection of our nature; thus they show that we are such sort of creatures as to stand in need of those helps which higher orders of creatures do not. ~ Joseph Butler

If you look closely at a tree you’ll notice it’s knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully. ~ Matthew Fox
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Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere. ~ Thomas Carlyle
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Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair. ~ Ieyasu Tokugawa
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The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly – indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection. ~ Arianna Huffington
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There is a kind of beauty in imperfection. ~ Conrad Hall
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Bo Mackison is a photogrpaher and owner of  Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

 

Winter Wear

Icy © 2007

Ice shrouded seed heads
are warming in the gray fog.
Glistening drip-drop.

 

Owen Conservation Park, Madison, Wisconsin