The Week Before Christmas

December 18th through 24th
A brief, a very brief, less cold spell freed the trees from the frost cage that had bound them for the last week or so. The snow on the ground (about six inches) and the length of the day said, "December", but the trees whispered something about March. Then Winter shushed them. Just before the warm up, an unusual fog poured into the area and flowed around for most of the day. Some of the fog might have moved on. Most of it flocked the trees, weeds, piers, and everything else in the northwoods. The warmer weather cleaned everything off in less than a day. The warm passed, but not before forming puddles of water on the lake ice. By midweek, a cold morning light cast jagged silhouettes of pine tops on the lake and revealed that the lake ice was a few frozen puddles thicker. With the new cold came wind. On Lucerne, snow devils danced from West to East pushing lake snow onto the shore. The apocalyptic snow event predicted for later in the week was greatly exaggerated. The 7 to 12 inches forecast shrunk to about 2 by the time the storm arrived. The condition of Knott Lane is not so bad. There's more snow than ice and less falling down. The deer shaped suet feeder is growing in popularity among the small feathered set. The seed feeder at the bar ran out of seeds. Shortly after that, a member of the local squirrel mafia made it known that its organization was unhappy with the state of the feeder. We apologized for the oversight. The feeder was refilled. There was no trouble (as long as it doesn't happen again). Late last week, a hole was poked into Lucerne. The lake is covered with about 6 inches of very good ice. It's getting cold again. Well isn't that new and different. It looks like the second sub-season of Winter is coming sooner rather than later. Deep Winter with its fluffy snow and sub-zero highs will start just after Christmas. You might want to wear a hat before going out.<br><br>-Nemo's not very haikuy this week