the rare one, part 2

A repeat! February begins with a day that is winter-perfect! (I hear it’s the last of a brief trend.)

Lili, an Ocean reader, first hinted several years ago that February ushers in light like no other: delicate, forgiving. Today, Lili, I had a perfect example of what you described.





And if it’s so magnificent in light and air, I should be out there, no? I tell Ed we should ski. But I have water polo! -- he reminds me. Me, I cannot imagine spending a Sunday afternoon submerged in chlorine and chasing a ball, but it need not be repeated here that Ed and I are different.

I pick up cross country skis and head to Blue Mound State Park.





It may as well be (a slightly chilly) spring. The day is full of firsts: the first entrance to a state park (the ritual of scraping off old, park stickers and pasting on the 2009 one). The first sighting of a bird in the bushes that line the trail.





The first time on skis, damn it! The first time this year. On a day where a groundhog, had he been asked, would have said – yep, nearly spring (even though tomorrow, the temps will drop and the snow will come again).






It’s Super Bowl Sunday and the trails are nearly empty. Since I am alone, I push myself harder, faster.





And then, on top of the ridge, I stop.










It’s just so beautiful outside!





Two days in a row. Probably the only two. But if you have two, that buys you time. I can wait a while now. I don’t need more. I’m not greedy. Two weeks, or even three of awfulness – fine with me.

Because today was delicately exquisite.