Spring! Kind Of

Back on March 6, I visited a favorite spot along the St. Croix River, checking to see if there were signs of spring showing yet,  It's been a cold and very snowy winter, and a melt reliably gets followed by more snow, more melt, with temperatures which can't decide from one day to the next whether to be warm or cold again. My most recent blog showed a somewhat buried car from snow. I'm delighted to inform you that it's no longer buried and has been back on the road running necessary errands.

Yesterday one of those necessary errands involved taking the camera, new battery included, back to the river I visited weeks ago. There have been changes.

Where before solid ice covered the backwater part of it from bank to bank, now the near edge has melted enough to produce reflections.

Some of last year's grass along the bank managed to survive the heaping layers of snow well enough to still stand erect, while its neighbors matted up, waiting for enough steady warmth to sprout again.

Ice still extends most of the way across. In rare spots it still bears weight enough for the foolish attempting fishing to walk out and drill holes. In other spots it locks fallen branches in position, waiting to see if enough water rushes through to lift and scoot them downstream.

 The view downstream on the backwater side seems to show very little progress in melting...

until it joins with the main channel, which is ice free from bank to bank, except for the occasional floating chunk still riding the current until finally melting without trace on its journey to join the Mississippi and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.

Some of what it passes will likely remain close to shore, like the remains of a dead bush or tree, waterlogged and weighted down, waiting to snag miscast fishing lines and hang onto them until eventual rot and high currents have their way sending it out of sight.