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Yellow Bird: Signs of spring already in the air
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Filed Under: Opinion

"This time of the year is unsettling - deep and gripping cold, then the changes to slush and sun. I can feel the earth spirits turning, moving and readjusting for a new season. Time is passing, and the elements measure the transition.

Sometimes while driving across the middle of the state in the summer, I'll run into bits and pieces of a thunderstorm. It's as if someone smacked their hands together in the middle of the dark thunderheads and scattered them into small rainsqualls; the squalls dissipate over time and leave holes for the sun. Then the sun uses the dark of the cloud as a contrasting background for a rainbow, which arches in full color from one horizon to another.

That's summer and what's ahead.

I saw hints of spring Saturday as I drove home from a Minnesota jaunt. Several weeks of below zero weather had left me feeling foggy-minded. I also was worried as I started home because it was snowing - snowing enough so that I couldn't see west down the long, straight corridor of State Highway 21.

With the misty snow clouds along the road, it was as if I were driving the breadth of the giant Red Lake.

Then after only a few miles, the sky cleared and the sun showed brightly."

Get the Story:
Dorreen Yellow Bird: Unstable weather hints of spring (The Grand Forks Herald 2/21)
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