Poetry and a Cup of Tea

January 22, 2013

Even our owl agrees...this morning he was saying 'it's cooold, it's cooold'!


You can find this great owl print at http://www.etsy.com/listing/80634184/owl-print-illustration-its-cold-tonight

I admit it--I like to pretend I'm pretty tough when it comes to wind chill temperatures. I pride myself on being a prairie girl with pretty thick skin when it comes to the bitter north winds that blow all winter long. I was the little girl who imagined the snowbanks were the Swiss Alps and pretended I was Heidi as I clambered along the 'mountains' on my way to elementary school. And later I was the mother who sent her children off to the same elementary school with the admonition to 'walk fast, and if you get cold, walk faster'. My personal standard for walking to school was negative 45 wind chill; only when it reached negative 46 did I drive anyone to school! Adversity, which includes nasty wind chills, builds character--right?

I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of my childhood on the frozen prairie, proving once and for all, that South Dakotans are made of stern stuff.

Here's my dad, digging DOWN to reach the TOP of a farm's propane tank!

A little snow didn't keep us kids from having fun!

My sister checking out her Christmas bike!

My brother and sister ice skating in our backyard--our Dad turned our summer garden into our own personal ice skating rink...we were lucky kids!

A new winter sport--snow swinging!

Every South Dakotan's face has 'felt the Winter's wind', as Keats describes below in his poem written in 1818. The trick is to bundle up and then pretend you are so tough you don't even notice it. Sometimes, it almost works.

The Winter's Wind

O thou whose face hath felt the Winter’s wind,
Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in mist,
And the black elm tops ‘mong the freezing stars!
To thee the spring will be a harvest time.
O thou whose only book has been the light
Of supreme darkness, which thou feddest on
Night after night, when Phœbus was away!
To thee the spring shall be a triple morn.
O fret not after knowledge. I have none,
And yet my song comes native with the warmth.
O fret not after knowledge! I have none.
And yet the evening listens. He who saddens
At thought of idleness cannot be idle,
And he’s awake who thinks himself asleep.

And one last picture, just because it's my birthday today and I am rather fond of this photo. For whatever reason I woke up on my fourth birthday GRUMPY and not even the beautiful doll cake made by my Aunt Nellie could improve my mood. But even though I'm a grump (I wouldn't even smile for the camera!), I'm surrounded by people I love--my grandparents, my beloved Aunt Nellie and Uncle Lowell, my cousin Brenda and of course my mom, who was behind the camera.