Author: Melanie, Great River School

Location: Wooded Area off Como Lake

Weather: Mostly blue skies, with the occasional wispy cloud. I s probably around seventy degrees, with a comfortable breeze.

Even though, according to the "official" calendar, it is still winter, it feels like summer. The sun is beating down, there are people about, and animals are no longer in hiding. There are birds in the trees, both audible and visible, hopping around. A woodpecker perches near me, and tries to drill through the tree in search of food. There are bugs buzzing around, and flies landing on me. There is absolutely no snow, and the ground, while not altogether alive, does not look completely dead, either. Other vegetation, however, seems to be the one thing missing from this summertime scene. The trees are still all bare, and there are no flowers or fruits. The skeletal trees actually sem out of place on a day like today. Taking into account the weather, the animals, and the plants, today is a strange mixture of summer, spring and winter all in one, providing a very strange and abrupt end to a winter that was already unique.