Yes,Yes Yes!!! Glistening ice sculptures, diamonds sparkling in the snow, azure blue skies, the sun a red ball of fire warming the cockles of your heart and the quarter moon so huge you could ride it all the way to the heavens.

Does that sound like a love poem to what most of you would regard as inhospitable conditions and its denizens crazy for wanting to live here. Today we reached a low of -9F (-23C) and a wind chill factor of -27F (-33C). Having just come back from two months in South East Asia and India where I sweltered in heat and humidity, it was quite a shock to my system for the first few days but then I eagerly embraced dressing in multiple layers and looking like Nanook of the North. After all who needs mascara when icicle eyelashes are all the vogue.

Though it’s hard to believe, I love living here, in ALL four of our seasons. So, join me on my daily winter journey that may prove enticing enough to flood my home with more visitors than I can handle 😊

As many of you know, I walk every day. It’s the best part of my day and I find it exhilarating, and energizing. I walk about 7 miles (11KM) around 2 of the many natural glacier lakes in the heart of the city.

The fauna and flora present differently every day and are a feast for the eyes: Bald eagles, Trumpeter swans and the humble wild duck.

We Minnesotans embrace winter. It would be a hermit existence otherwise!! So it’s great fun to see the populace enjoy ice fishing (huddled in little tents), cross country skiing, dog walking, ice hockey, ice skating and wind sailing on and around the lakes.

And what better way to start a cold February Sunday than wolfing down the best buttermilk pancakes west of the Mississippi and walking them off (ouch!) gazing at fierce ice dragons (fire all squelched) and the city proudly tall with white plumes of smoke rising into the blue sky.

Hope springs eternal in every Minnesotan heart that spring and summer are just around the corner when the lakes will allure with a different kind of action!

So come visit and let me tell you our little secret. It’s not that cold all the time. Next week is going to be a virtual heat wave by ‘our’ standards. We just don’t advertise it otherwise everybody would move here 😉

Adios till next time!!