Figure 1 – Ice along the path on the eve of the winter’s solstice. (c) DE Wolf 2017.

I am looking toward spring, but there are obstacles both physical and metaphorical. The biggest one is winter, which the calendar suggests is going to hang around for a while. Figure 1 was taken on our Winter Solstice walk in Lincoln, Massachusetts. At one point the path was a solid sheet of ice that had been undermined by draining water and which had collapsed into this tangled mass of broken ice. Needless-to-say we paused to photograph it and then steered judiciously around it.

This is Thoreau country – this site is just a few miles from Walden Pond. The eagle in its gyre could easily see both. Thoreau is never far from our thoughts, especially in winter. He gives expression to the fierce independence of the Massachusetts spirit. We are the heirs of his spirit.

“Why do you flee so soon, sir, to the theaters, lecture-rooms, and museums of the city? If you will stay here awhile I will promise you strange sights. You shall walk on water; all these brooks and rivers and ponds shall be your highway. You shall see the whole earth covered a foot or more deep with purest white crystals . . . and all the trees and stubble glittering in icy armor.”

Henry David Thoreau Journals, October 18, 1859