My Minnesotan friend Tom sent an email about how much fun he's having at the St. Paul winter festival:
On Thursday after class I went over to look at the Palace. It was minus 10 or 15 F that night. I had to take my glove off to change camera batteries and got pretty frozen. There was a portable heat unit near a tent so I scavenged some heat. I'd like to be able to put on my crampons and ice axes and scramble around on the parapets.
Yeah, you go Tom. Sounds like shitloads of fun. But you know me, I can't even hang in a tree. Anyway, pictures will suit me just fine. Thanks for the link.
It reminded me of a couple of things - for one (and this gets about as close to politics as this post is going) the ice palace that the original Ice Queen, czarina Anna Ioannovna, commissioned in St. Petersburg as some sort of cruel jest for her court jester's wedding gift. Apparently, the wedding itself was part of an elaborate satire Miss Anna was commanding. And I believe this is where the whole ice palace building fad got started.
It also reminded me of some pictures I'd seen some time back of an ice hotel. I Googled, and found one in Quebec, and this more famous one in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.
http://www.ros.org.uk/wedding/day2.html
http://www.cdt.luth.se/~aruna/Photos/Aruna_photos.htm
http://www.travelnotes.de/scandi/winter97/igloo.htm#p1105
http://www.auction-air.com/2001_cycle02/lot11.html
Brrrr. Beautiful, but not a bit tempting. Not even those last pictures of the bar. And definitely not what I needed to look at today. Ice storm a-comin'. I hope it doesn't do to our trees here what that one a couple years ago did over in Kansas City. If it does, though, perhaps I will be seeing you sooner than later, Tom. Eh? And perhaps even John Paul. If it comes to that, you can publish on the arbo forum that I've got two extra beds and two couches - more than four and they'll have to start bringing sleeping bags. I'll also provide food - SOME anyway - I'm not feeding a half dozen arborists for a week! But, I'm getting ahead of things here. Sunday-Monday's weather forecast says up to 2 inches of ice with up to 3 inches of snow on top of it. If that happens, I'm afraid the trees can't take it. So, fingers crossed.
Poor little groundhog. What shadow? He's about to be frozen into his groundhog hole.
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