image 1

Back of postcard, in lesser quality

image 2

Neither one looks good via my scans, alas… trust me, they look better in person!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/milwaukeesnow/sets/72157629447513183/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/milwaukeesnow/sets/72157629088508718/

You know, I kind of thought our mild winter was already transitioning into Spring. But hey, at least one more weekend where we can celebrate winter! We might not have another day where we can enjoy snow-covered vistas for – 9 or 10 more months! (And given that Sunday is supposed to be rainy and in the 40s, go out there and enjoy the snow while it lasts…)

 What do I recommend this weekend? Just go out and walk, snowshoe, sled, etc – take a look while it lasts! This late in winter, there aren’t a lot of ‘winter celebration events’ planned, but there’s plenty you can do on your own. Milwaukeeans shouldn’t be tired of too much snow, since we haven’t had much of it, so enjoy what is, this winter, a rare treat! I’ve seen a lot of friends posting photos on Facebook already – we’re having some unusual views available, figure out how you would like to perceive and remember them.

Other ‘event picks’:

 Feb 24-25: Make a snowman or snow sculpture.         In your yard, in your local park. Good packing snow! See what you can do with it J

Downhill skiing at Crystal Ridge. Yes, Milwaukee County, our park system here has a snow hill! Check out http://www.skicrystalridge.com/ for more, as you think about how you can have the fun of skiing… and then be home in time for dinner, and sleep in your own bed…

Cross Country skiing at Whitnall Park. Skis available for rental at the Whitnall Park Concessions area.

Feb 25: Tapping the Sugarbush, 1-3  Riveredge Nature Center A family program. “This event marks the start of the magical maple sugarin’ season at Riveredge. Bring your family and friends to join us in the traditional labors of the season. Learn how to indentify a maple, properly tap a tree, place a spile and hang the bucket to collect the sap. Call 262-375-2715 to Register. We’re moving into tree-tapping season, and I’ve heard from naturalists that this is one of children

Feb 26: Geocaching by snowshoe  Foxbrook Park, via Urban Ecology Center Call for more info on event and register, by end of Friday… if weather cooperates, could be interesting way to pay close attention to the nature around one.

We never know for sure when snow will come. So enjoy these rare gifts when they happen! Soon, we will spend much of the year without the peace of a snow-covered landscape in the morning, the jittery energy of a snowstorm, the variety of ice patterns formed on lakes and rivers.

This is a season that leaves us aware of our limits. Our dependence. Our vulnerability. We can’t drive in this season the way we drive otherwise. It can be rare, outside of winter, for most people (in this region at least) to have their lives, their travel, significantly affected by weather. But snowstorms, and cold weather, remind us that we are placed within a larger context.

If we take time to walk and prepare carefully, we can increase our chances of appreciating, and being safe. Look closely. Dress carefully. Be patient when you walk. These can be burdens. But they also offer opportunities. Opportunities to stretch our skills. To learn more about what is close to us.

 Whatever you come up with, I hope you head outside this weekend!

Moments when I am prepared for the cold: when I have all the layers on, when I’m not missing an item (scarf, perhaps)… it is impressive how easy it is to handle the cold. Really, unless there is a strong wind, I do not find days in the 20s, or even 10s, to leave me cold. Particularly if one keeps walking, warming oneself up by that. It may seem intimidating, but when I am prepared, it is not bad at all.

Stepping out into the cold: And I often get excited for it, jumping up, clapping my hands, as I step outside. I may feel a little sting from briskness in the air, but I am happy to be out exploring, taking a break, wandering to see what the landscape has to offer that day…

Moments when I am not prepared, including getting out as I drive: That said, the other side of this is that it makes a BIG difference if I am short a layer, or missing something. One naturalist told me that the children who visit tend to be properly dressed – it’s the adults who don’t always wear enough… So be ready for the weather! It is not much of a sacrifice to make, and I wonder how much frustration at the cold stems more from not adapting a little to it than from the cold itself.

This can happen to me too. When I am not psyched up, when I am driving around and get a little chilled in the car, and then I need to walk to a store… those are moments when the cold can feel like more of a burden.

 But this is part of why I think we need to positively engage winter. If we too often just encounter winter through these passing moments, when the wind bites through a thin layer of clothing, when we are busy doing other things and the snow or cold seems to slow us down or discomfort us – then we divorce ourselves from our place. We set aside part of what has been part of the human experience, and part of the role we can play as citizens of our area. So don’t let these be the impressions that shape your reactions to winter. Take the initiative to prepare yourself and enjoy it!

Mild winter Most of what we have had this year. Sometimes so mild that I dress only for Fall, and end up a little chilly Easy enough to walk around in, little ice to slip on since it is above freezing. Face does not really get cold. No reason not to continue in most of the year-round activities we can enjoy (except perhaps those that require bare hands).

 Deep winter I’ll think back to past winters… when the temperature went near zero, or below it. These are the days when you really need to be bundled, protected against wind, and not exposing your skin. When the air feels stiff and dry, and your nostrils notice the difference. This is a challenge, and I don’t expect everyone will feel comfortable taking it on. But it is also an adventure…

 Lambeau Field cold I am often struck by the fact that while one might see few people wandering around in parks during winter, one can see tens of thousands standing around tailgating, including eating outside, and then sitting around in the stadium, waiting for chances to cheer! What makes Packer home games such a special experience – arguably, the biggest winter celebrations in the state? I am not alone in going ahead and bundling up for these events, not caring about style (well, other than covering myself with a layer of green and gold), eyes carefully open outside to see what I might find to enjoy… how can we take that special attitude we apply to Packer games, and realize it more often during winter? Something to think about…

capture the flag at Lynden

Public events have a good range of activities for kids. It helps to be a kid – or to be willing to act like one ;) – to enjoy them. For instance, since I was willing to go sledding in Washington Park, and a friend was willing to pet a sled dog, we found things to engage with. I have basically just been using one sled for the last quarter-century or so, so I did find it fun to try out some of the new sled models At the Lynden Sculpture Garden, playing ‘capture the flag’ provided a lot of us with a chance to be active, be playful… and forget how cold it was, and just focus on the joy of being outside!

(For more of my photos from the Lynden, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/milwaukeesnow/sets/72157629303901673/ - and check out my other Milwaukee winter pictures on flickr as well!)

Sledding at UEC's Washington Park event

The events did leave me wondering what we should do to have adults share winter celebrations together. Skating at Red Arrow Park comes to mind as the outdoor activity which most adults share. I do enjoy walking in parks, and saying hi to people I see while out walking, but that is a more solitary activity. I enjoyed our outdoor winter festivals, but none of them are on the scale of what the Twin Cities have. Perhaps our weather is too warm for that, but I hope we can find a way to appreciate what our milder winters have to offer.

Of course, part of the problem is that we have not had much snow this winter. As Ambassador of Snow, this has made my job a bit harder – if I want people to celebrate what they have, not much point in wandering around singing the praises of what was not falling. And some of the winter celebrations lacked elements they had last year, when we had more snow – the Urban Ecology Center’s Winterfest was unable to offer skiing, snowshoeing (as well as iceskating because the temperatures had not been cold enough).

 So instead, I have seen more of my task this winter as one of reminding us of all the other distinctive aspects of winter (the cold, the ice, the starkness), as well as the things we have to enjoy year-round, but might forget during winter.

 Sometimes, we might not realize some of what we have to enjoy around here – for instance, we have a ski hill in Milwaukee County, at Crystal Ridge! The instructors I talked to from Crystal Ridge were very enthusiastic, and wanted to spread word about the lessons they have available for children. You don’t have to travel far for downhill skiing, as long as the weather is cold enough.

 And some of the smaller pleasures are more dependent on cold than on snow. At Wehr, I heard that being part of the process of obtaining maple sugar from trees is a winter highlight for kids. Small pleasure perhaps, but fun – and an interesting way to connect to local nature, as well as to connect to a source of food!

 Remember that being pro-active, looking for things you can appreciate about each time of year, is a great way to reconnect with enthusiasm for winter. We have creativity on display, from the Plein Air exhibit of winter art at DeLind to the Winter Gallery at the Portrait Society Gallery to the Bright Winter exhibit at HotPop. Debra Brehmer and Erin Paisley each noted that they overcame earlier feelings of melancholy and isolation by reframing how they think about winter, choosing to find ways to connect with the season, and leading to creative production during the season. Painting snow may not be for everyone – but any of us could appreciate how beautiful shadows are on snow, whether cast by trees or by sculptures.

snow sculptors at work in Racine

 And we have also had snow and ice sculpting to appreciate in our area, from the 3^rd ward to Racine to Lake Geneva. (It may have melted quickly – like much of winter, it is good to go out and enjoy, to… strike while the iron is not hot, so to speak I was impressed to see the planning required to create art with little margin for error, and under conditions which leave the artists outside in winter all day!

snow sculpture in Racine (almost finished)

My favorite creative ways to interact with winter are probably letting my imagination have more free play during snowstorms… and looking closely, at the landscape and at small corners of it, to see the unusual ice and snow patterns one can follow during winter. Take a look, and see what you can find!

(For more of my photos from the Urban Ecology Center and Wehr’s winter events, see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288574494531200.71878.136469736408344&type=3.)

The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel published a photo of me kicking off the event (along with other photos of the event):

http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/photos/139161039.html#id_64827189

For the pictures I took, of art, trees, play, and shadows on snow, see…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/milwaukeesnow/sets/72157629303901673/

For the Lynden’s recap of the event (including another pic of me), see:

 http://lyndensculpturegarden.com/blog/winter-carnival-2012-recap

The Lynden Sculpture Garden is an unusual and fascinating place. A chance to see sculptures not in the museum, but in a carefully landscaped garden designed to frame them. (Leaves me feeling like I am leading the charmed life of a person who gets to wander around such sculptures…)

http://lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/second-annual-winter-carnival

They are are having their second annual Winter Carnival this year. Events are indoors and outdoors, and include a Capture the Flag game designed and played in part by artists, a guided tour of trees in the winter landscape, and soups and bread designed for Milwaukee and the occasion. As well as an appearance by yours truly, the Ambassador of Snow

Many local parks have candelight ski / hike events planned for this weekend, for couples looking for an active romantic activity to enjoy. Few things are more romantic than candlelight, right? Rather than curse the darkness, light a candle; rather than feel limited by the cold and dark, make it a special occasion, and enjoy it! Bong Recreation Area and Kettle Moraine have events planned, as well as State Parks in other parts of the state.

Check my page at

http://milwaukeesnow.com/winter-events-in-milwaukee-2011-2012/

For other events details. Hope you enjoy another winter activity weekend!

Naturalist-led hike at Wehr

I will be showing a slideshow of around 70 of my favorite Wisconsin Winter Photos as part of my Snow Sermon tonight.

I have also posted more pictures of interesting scenes I have seen, and people out enjoying winter: you can see my photos of Winterfest at Wehr and the Urban Ecology Center at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288574494531200.71878.136469736408344&type=3

and more photos of what I’ve seen around the area at http://www.flickr.com/photos/milwaukeesnow/

My 3rd annual talk ‘in praise of snow!’ Each year, I polish up my favorite thoughts about winter and snow – from the perspective of an environmental historian who loves those things.

The talk usually runs 15-30 minutes, depending on audience participation, and is accomp…anied by a slideshow of some of my favorite images of winter in Wisconsin. The reception will continues in the gallery for some time afterwards, including (but not limited to) a discussion of guests’ ideas and experiences during winter. 

The event will be catered by Kathy Papineau of Localicious. Overall, this will be a thorough exploration of what it means to be ‘cool’ in winter Yea, dorky, but… most of my jokes during the sermon will be about the silly things I do to get out in the snow

The event will be held at the Portrait Society Gallery, on the 5th floor of the Marshall Building in the 3rd Ward. For more on the Gallery and the Winter Chapel I am helping sponsor there, see http://portraitsocietygallery.wordpress.com/

I believe people in Milwaukee could do a better job of appreciating what we have to enjoy during winter. I want us to love our place. I want to help people who are down during winter to find things to appreciate about it.

I praise because snow reflects light. It adds structure to the air. It makes me want to play. It brings me joy and energy. I am amazed to see the sky turn into shapes. To feel the air made physical, brushing against me. To see the night’s floor gleam, and sparkle.

 A snow-covered landscape creates something different, as if one had gone on vacation to another place. This takes me out of the ordinary. Cheaply, quickly. When one must move slowly through familiar places, one bonds with them with a new intensity. A chance to experience the local in an unusual way. Don’t need to fly to mountains and climb them – digging through deep snow, or fighting a storm’s winds, are challenge in their own right, right here!

 While we can have our grey days in winter (just like any season), winter nights can be brighter than at any other time of year. A layer of white on the ground sure sticks out! (Even when its not reflecting moonlight.) It frames what crosses it: it can be an interesting backdrop that suggests something mysterious is arriving out of the darkness.

Come if you are interested to hear more, and spread the word to others who might like to attend…

 p.s. There are also a number of other interesting events in the area, chances to get outdoors and enjoy the cold or the mild, however you look at it… check http://milwaukeesnow.com/winter-events-in-milwaukee-2011-2012/ for more details. The Cedarburg event has some particularly intriguing activities… but this weekend, I hope you’ll forgive me for focusing on pitching my event

First, a suggestion: get off the road. There are many ways in which cars and snow do not mix well. This is one of them. It is too easy to think of snow as grey, dirty, slushy… when one primarily sees snow from one’s car, on edge of the road and piled up near it. The same thing can be said for sidewalks, to an extent, since they tend to be next to roads.

Instead, try a bike path or a trail. Or try a park. Or look out into your backyard. When the snow melts there, it may have leaves, bits of branches and etc in it, but it won’t have road waste. The snow will look more like snow, less like the road, less like a grey mess. There’s a larger point about how we transform the nature around us to be made… but for now, if you’re going to enjoy snow, it is probably not going to be the snow left piled up by plows, and melted down halfway. It is more likely to be snow that coats objects that are off the road.

Keep an eye out for the contrasts even some snow sets up. When we are having a mild winter without snow – most of what we’ve had this year – it is, like early spring and late fall, a time for keeping an eye for subtle signs and noting the subtle differences in browns. It is also a time that benefits from walking through – woody areas can look like ‘blur of brown’ from a distance, but when you walk up to them you see all the different levels, nuances in color, notice the sky more, notice what you can see through the trees.

Add even a little snow, and the difference is striking. Frosted branches make horizontals and diagonals jump out at you. One can notice flat areas, depressions, straight paths, and other areas which for one reason or another fill up with snow more easily, and/or melt less quickly; (including car tracks.) fields of grasses will have certain sections or lines that have a covering of snow. I think hillsides might be the most interesting area to watch; so much complexity of levels and layers and depths to look at, different trees entering view on different levels – and snow behind it making it all easier to process, making the trees stick out much more.

But there are other areas to keep an eye on the transformation, too. Any lawn with snow on it has some white spots which create a striking contrast with the dark brown of trees, the light brown and green of grasses, as well as buildings. Remember to stop and take a look – how different things look when that white is added! And this, like many aspects of winter, can change from day to day. Step outside at night, too. Snow glows and reflects in the night in a way that the ground normally does not; near streetlights, or when the moon is bright, the ground’s floor has a vibrant presence in the night it normally does not. That glow can transform some of the night’s mystery from a dark distancing into a mixture of light and dark that promises new combinations.

This has been a rough winter for planners of winter events. The Urban Ecology Center’s Winterfest, for instance, was unable to host the skiing, skating, and snowshoeing which it did last year. This reminds us how nature does not follow our schedules. TV documentaries might trick us into thinking nature is on display for us, when we schedule it in. But actually, winter, like other nature, is erratic. Sometimes, like the Groundhog Day blizzard last year, we get a ton of it at once. At other times, the weather is so mild that we can’t count on enjoying many winter-specific activities. (This is perhaps a good time to look to make use of someplace where you can check out skis and snowshoes, without buying them, so you don’t have to feel frustrated because you bought something that you could only use a few times each winter.)

So it helps to get out there and enjoy things when the moment occurs. This is easier for me, for certain reasons, I admit. But there is a larger point relevant for all of us: how many of our joys can be strictly scheduled? Be continually open to the possibility that something may occur to provide a pleasant break, something to look out at and wonder at. Something you may need to investigate. The cold may be intermittent, but when it does arrive, notice how different things feel. When the cold brings snow with it, go out after the snowfall and check out the snow, because the snow may not be there for long.

I hope you will stay excited about the prospect of winter weather, snowy fields, ice on the lakeshore. Keep the anticipation going at least through February (I hope that this will prove particularly easy during such a mild winter – winter has not done much yet to wear out its welcome here.) Each season has its place. Remember how to frame these events positively. Winter won’t be around that much longer, and since the coldest average month of the year is now ending, we are already slowly warming up. Our cold and snow have been patchy this year, but appreciate what these patches have to offer, and appreciate the things we would miss if we went a year without them.