Whipped Cream

Last Sunday, Larry and I celebrated the anticipated new year by purchasing our 2013 Wisconsin state park stickers at Devil's Lake State Park.  It was a quiet afternoon at the lake with just a few people seen engaging in winter sports there.  We saw a couple of people ice-fishing and another couple snow-shoeing.  Even the birds were silent.  The hush and the snow made the park spectacular.  Temperatures have been cold enough that the snow we'd received a few weeks ago during our pre-Christmas blizzard and the flakes that followed had not yet melted from the rocky surfaces, the picnic tables or the trees.   Everything looked pristine and white with mounds of snow covering them.  I likened the landscape to a giant hand having taken an equally giant spoonful of whipped cream, flicking the wrist just so to cover the entire park with white dollops.  I can certainly understand the philosophy of those human snowbirds who crave the sun and warmth of the south at this time of year, but this snowbird of a different kind found the mounds of snow on the rocky outcroppings, deciduous tree branches and every other surface at Devil's Lake to be nothing short of breath taking.  I wouldn't have wanted to miss the sight.