05. May 2013 · 6 comments · Categories: Photos

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In Milwaukee, this is the time of year when we are so afraid it’s never going get warm again. We’ve had six straight months of hard, cold winter weather here on the west coast of Lake Michigan. Winter is not leaving gracefully and we are paranoid.

This time of year, Winter is also mentally and emotionally abusive to Milwaukeeans. It toys with us, like it did last week, when temperatures shot to the eighties and we went nuts, donning shorts and flip-flops, and sipping German beers al fresco under bare trees.

 

 

Then Winter said, “I don’t think so.” Temperatures plummeted back into the thirties; sleet fell; frigid winds leaked through the windows and we had to turn the heat on again. Friday it started raining just after John and I started out for a long walk. We looked at each other and sighed, pulled down our caps, bent forward and went. Milwaukeeans feel a keen sense of defeat this time of year.

 

 

Although we long for Winter to give up and go home, there’s one thing about it I will miss, and that’s the spectacular effect it had on Lake Michigan this year. I’m no weather expert, but there was something about the cold and snow and ice and the way the light hit everything. I’ve looked out at the lake every day for nine years now and I’ve never seen it look as strangely beautiful as it did this past winter.

Hate to say it, but I will miss it.

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6 Comments

  1. The pictures are really something. More than a few worthy of framing.

    • Thanks, J. Great idea. We should pick one, get a large print, and take it to a shop. Might even be nice to do one for each season and group them together on a wall.

  2. I love the different day/night same view pictorial. There are some really dramatic shots in there as well as beautiful ones. Sorry to here about Milwaukee weather but I lived it growing up. Hence living out west… haha! Not to stick it to ya but Reno has the most temperate, long and beautiful spring/summer/fall in the world. We usually enjoy high 60’s and mid 70’s starting in late march. I’ve been mowing my lawn for at least a month. But yet summer doesn’t get too hot. Ahhhh yes ……I miss Milwaukee…. but always will… 🙂

    • Thank you, John T. Appreciate that a great deal, given your good, critical eye. I got the idea to do this same shot/different day about ten years ago when I moved to John G’s place in this building. It brings me just about as much joy sharing these pics in this forum as it does looking out over the lake each day.

  3. Agreed…there was something mystical about it this year 🙂 Love pict 17 and 7 blows my mind, you cant tell where the water and the sky separate 🙂

  4. Hi Teresa, thanks for your comment. I know what you mean; one of my favorite things about Lake Michigan is that horizon line: at times as sharp as a knife, as mooshy as a sponge, or altogether absent. Although I’m not wishing for winter quite yet, I do look forward to seeing what might happen this year, or if last year was a beautiful, unusual fluke.

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