Wisconsin Whitewater Winter Wonderland

Wisconsin Whitewater Winter Wonderland

                      

I never thought that I would leave the North West and move back to my home state with my family!  All of my children were born in the North West and we considered it our permanent home.  Well, with all of the twists & turns that life is full of...a change of career, tough choices, God's interventions to steer us in the directions that He would take us.... we said "good bye" to Oregon & Bay Area, California for a time & "hello" to Whitewater, Wisconsin.  I never would have guessed that my children would live as I did with -30  & -40 windchill and multiple snow days (many of which have been just for the below zero temps).  Yet, here we are. While I am still quite homesick, one of the things that I love about Wisconsin is....you probably won't guess it.....the winter!  Yes, while all the natives are complaining by late December and ready for warmth, I feel like winter just started!  Part of the enchantment are the abundance of trees & giant pines of the Kettle Moraine near the Ice Age Trail that surround us.  And part of my desire for a full winter is because we don't get out very much to do all the winter sports that we love, so I want the snow and ice to last long enough to enjoy all our activities at least once!  Like cross-country skiing, ice skating on the lake, sledding, & snowshoeing.  I am certainly bound to stay inside when the windchill is subzero, but I love the snow; I love the bare trees dusted or frozen with ice and gleaming in the clouds or sparkling in the sunlight; I've been quite surprised at how much sun there is during the winters here in the North. And I love the sound of crunching snow beneath my tires.   So, I am sharing a poem that I wrote way back in my Chicago area college days for a Christmas letter along with some pictures of our snow activities: the poem describes a quiet, nighttime snow.  A "fugue" is a piece of music in which tunes are repeated in complex patterns, much like the repetitive pattern of falling snow, each flake of its own complex design...Inspired by floating nighttime snow & of God's continuous works of grace on the earth, from somewhere around 1993...

                        

A winter wonderland run.

                 

                             Fugue 
From quivering stars in navy galaxy

The wet-white glitter are shaken

Down into sleeping, shivering night

Now silently awakened 

To hear the fugue of falling stars. 

Twinkle, twinkle tiny stars 
Sparkle in the dark, 

They woo the world with a peaceful wish
And kiss the face of earth,

In pensile descent they linger, lucent,
Before they steadily caress

Earth’s ebbing face and lightly
Dress her bare limbs and

Tickle her pine lashes with crystalled grace.
No trace of wind disturbs this peaceful
Slow snow shower.
Earth’s breath is held and hushed for
One quiet, starry hour
While silent symphony convenes by the
Conductor’s hand un-
Seen, he cues the fugue unrushed.
He directs while the galaxy descends
Filling the Earth celestial deep,
Making new, unblemished beds impressed
Where human angels sleep.
And David’s strum begins a golden hum
Calming Saul’s bitter fuss,
While the starry symphony plays on in the
Fugue of falling chorus.

by heidi hassell  (cook)

Big, wet flakes

A sled run in our backyard. Some winter sun ;)

Snowball

Dusted, barren trees.

Snowshoeing Sierra

Aspen wearing my cross-country skis.

Little Foot.

Chloe, across frozen Whitewater Lake.

Snow angel.

Golden winter sun, child-trudged snow.

Glorious giant pines.