Looking for Spring

Yesterday I stumbled onto a lovely blog written by a woman from the other end of the Mississippi River. She had been out looking for signs of spring in the state of Mississippi. So I thought I'd give it a try on this end. Not so easy yet. The days are definitely getting longer. Yesterday I went out to do an errand in the afternoon, thinking I was leaving about 3 PM, only to discover the sunlight was now deceiving me and it was actually about 4:30 and so I would be driving in rush hour.

But the weather remains really cold. When living in my house, my first sign of spring was usually hearing the male cardinals singing out their territory calls. The habitat here is different, no immediate large trees nearby, so no cardinals.  But even though is very cold -- this morning -10 in Farenheit  and -23 Celsius -- I did notice the snow melting along the side of the road where the sun was hitting -- this while driving in the mid-afternoon, so the sun is becoming stronger.

I decided to take some pictures weekly in the same area for the next few weeks so that we can see the difference.

If I go to the first floor of my building and then walk through the party room/cyber cafe, I come out onto a walkway to the river. Here's how that path looks today.
Most of this area is in shadow around 3:30 PM when I took this picture, but there is a glint of the afternoon sun on the building at the upper left. At the end of the walk there is a small overlook before one goes down the stairs to the street level. Here's how the river looked today from that vantage point:

The river is basically frozen and it takes very cold weather for that to happen. Just along the trail there is a little bit of open water. The bridge is called the High Bridge, basically because it is high! On my side of the river, one drives onto this bridge at a low level and then goes uphill the whole way to be at the level of the bluff on the other side of the river. There are river levels marked on the foundation blocks of this bridge. We'll be seeing those again when the flood comes -- notice I said when not if. The Minnesota River enters the Mississippi about 3 miles above my location and it will be carrying lots and lots of water from the heavy snowfalls in southern and western Minnesota, water that will all run off because the ground started out saturated after the heavy rains and floods of the fall.

I noticed the snow around this sign:

I thought this would be a good place to observe weekly for change. Here we look across the river to Harriett Island. We'll probably see the Island under water again before the spring is all said and done.

And finally something that excited me. Last summer construction was done on an observation deck over the river. This is right behind the building where I live. I can hardly wait for the chance to pour a cup of morning coffee and then head out the door to the observation deck.  This project was nearly completed when the fall flood came and work had to stop. One day when driving home I thought I noticed new lights and so went out to today to see. Yes, the lights are now installed and the railing has been built along the river.  Now it looks like only spring needs to come so that the construction fence can be removed.

Stayed tuned for how some of this looks in another week.