The sky opened up, and it got COLD...

I have wanted to get out to a local forest preserve where, about five years ago, I noticed a very old bicycle wheel embedded in the trunk of a tree about five or six feet up.  I headed out with my camera early this morning in ten degree weather hoping to find it.  I thought I had a good idea where it was, but it was a no-go.  It was very cold and windy, even though the sun was out and shining bright.  There is a certain sense of tranquility when you're out in nature during the bitter cold - not the same kind of tranquility you get while walking around any other time.  It's not a "dead" atmosphere by any means, but more like nature laughing quietly as it plots an explosion of life that will take place in a little over a month or so.  I strolled down to the river and stepped to the bank, which is frozen to about ten or twelve feet out.  The center of the river still flows and is transporting huge sheets and chunks of ice.  As I stood there I realized that frozen rivers make very odd sounds, sounds that reminded me of pouring water into a glass of ice cubes.  The straining, the cracking, the moaning of the ice as water rushes below and the blinding sun bounces light off the thick surface.  I was about to turn and leave when movement caught the corner of my eye. Something appeared under the ice, and for a split second I thought it was a clump of dead leaves moving with the current.  Quickly I realized that it was not debris but a muskrat, moving gracefully in the frigid water.  As I watched the animal through about three inches of crystal clear ice, I saw it moving its webbed hands and feet as it paddled its way in slow motion from one end of a huge drainage pipe to the other. As it got closer to me it turned over, exposing its underside, then completed its turn and resumed making its way toward its man-made den.  I could see the thick, shiny waterproof fur and little bubbles on its body.  As soon as it appeared, it disappeared underneath a large concrete wall surrounding the drain pipe.  I waited a few more minutes to see if it would reappear, but it did not.  This encounter is a reminder that life goes on even during the most brutal weather conditions.  All you have to do is search it out - and sometimes it does take a little luck.

Sunlit deer path

The icy banks of the Des Plaines