It’s spring! No, wait … false alarm.
One of my favorite things about living in Minnesota is the weather. Today, it’s cloudy and 51. Tomorrow will be sunny and 75 — or so we’ve been promised. Two weekends ago, it was in the 40s. And last week we almost hit 100.
This time of year, it’s not at all implausible to wear sandals one day and a parka the next. It makes for some interesting tan lines.
Still, I love spring. When the pips emerge and the trees start to bud, I feel like I’m witnessing a miracle. I have no idea how any living thing can survive our winters. Maybe the squirrels have tiny furnaces in their trees.
One of my favorite spring rituals is the annual morel hunt. This year, my friend Pam and I stalked the wily fungi in Frontenac, near Lake Pepin. But we didn’t spot a single shroom. I swear those things retract into the ground when they see me coming.
Well, no mind. We had a great day anyway. We ate our weight in granola, talked for hours, and got happily lost in the woods. All while wearing goofy hats that clearly identified us as “newbs.”
Here’s Pam, hot on the trail of an elusive morel:
Thanks for a great day, Pam.
Filed under: Friends and family, Minnesota | 1 Comment
Tags: climate change, Frontenac, Lake Pepin, Minneapolis weather, Minnesota, Minnesota weather, morel mushrooms, morels, Old Frontenac, Pam, spring in Minnesota
Thank YOU, Heather. If not for you, I would still be lost in those woods, wandering around mumbling to myself.
Just read an entry about morel hunting on another blog I admire, Red Wing Nature Notes, http://www.rwnaturenotes.net/, a wonderful blog by some acquaintances about nature in southeastern Minnesota’s Hiawatha Valley, where we went hiking. Here’s the entry: http://www.rwnaturenotes.net/?p=572. These people found some, hmph. I’m Lake City today, and visited my wise Uncle Elmer Sprick, who is wise about the ways of the forest. He said we would have been VERY UNLIKELY to find morels in the area where we got lost on the path leading to the Mississippi because it’s a flood plain and morels don’t like flood plains. Is that true, or is he steering us away of a secret location? With morels, who knows?