The Last of the Winter Light Today is Ice Out Day. That's the day when the lake begins to reflect the sky again. To me, it marks the official end of Winter, when the last tooth falls out of the lion's maw. We keep a record of the ice in/ice out on Cedar Island Lake (at least someone has since the 70's) This Winter was pretty average in duration and severity. Still, at times it seemed that we were trapped under the ice instead of on top of it. But never mind that, it's OVER! And all that is left are memories and pictures. Spring is here. But green isn't, not yet. It will start small and bright and before long it will take over the place. In Winter, green is only an accent color and the sky is king, changing the landscape from blue to pink to gray to gold and back to dazzling white. My son Riley and I were tromping through the crusty remains of snow along the shoreline the other day. The ice was probably still thick enough to walk out on, but I wasn't interested in finding out the hard way. I'd brought my camera along but I wasn't expecting much, the light was flat and gray. As we prepared to leave, the sun got low enough to peek under the canopy of clouds and this lovely pale yellow light gave drama to the dark underbelly of the sky. A week later Winter was on the run. The snow was mostly gone. When the rain came pelting down and hit the ice it was such an insult that fog rose up from the lake and swallowed the nearby yards and roads. A few days after that the geese came back, a bit too soon as usual. (Perhaps drawn by the pale yellow light like I was?) They strutted across the ice, as if searching for the water that must be here somewhere. Winter had one last bite to give. This is the before picture of our dock. When the ice goes dark it loses it's grip on the shore. And if the wind comes up steady and hard then the ice will scourge anything in it's path. The trees don't care much about the wind this time of year, without leaves they just shrug and sing. The crescendo woke me up about 4:30 and I knew there would be trouble. I also knew there wasn't anything to do about it. In the morning the damage was clear. Well, you leave your dock in, you take your chances. Tomorrow I'll start looking for the light of Spring.