Happy March! Was February a really long month for you? It was for me. And March continues on just like February. It was -4F (-20C) while I waited for the bus this morning. We have now managed to gain the rank of ninth coldest winter on record in the Twin Cities. We have more snow than average and we have had 50 days so far where temperatures have fallen below zero (-18C). So in celebration of this lovely weather, here is some Minnesota poetry for you:
It’s winter in Minnesota
And gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At thirty-five below.
Oh, how I love Minnesota
When the snow’s up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I’ll hang around
I could never leave Minnesota
I’m frozen to the ground.
At least with the weather so cold February was a good month for reading. I am almost done with David Copperfield. Will be done by the end of the week I suspect. Then my next fat book is A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, the third book in the Game of Thrones series.
I am still reading Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis. I am close to being done though, just four more essays. It’s a really good and thought provoking book.
Old Goriot by Balzac is still on the go too. The book does not allow one to read it very quickly, which is fine especially since I am enjoying it. I am up to the part where Rastignac has just found out that Goriot is not spending all his money on keeping mistresses but on paying his daughters’ debts. The cruelty of everyone in the boardinghouse toward Goriot is astonishing, I feel so sorry for the poor man.
I did finish reading Memories of the Unknown by Rutger Kopland. It is a wonderful poetry collection I will write about tomorrow.
What’s ahead for March then aside from finishing those books I have already mentioned? I began reading Landscape with Rowers, a small poetry anthology/selection of Dutch poets put together by J.M. Coetzee.
Because of Grad I started reading The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. It’s a beautiful nature journal and artist’s notebook that helps me mentally escape winter for just a little while.
I also have from the library Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine, a multi-genre work I am excited about reading. And sometime during the month my turn will come up at the library for Wendy Lesser’s new book Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books. Really looking forward to it!
That should keep me busy in March. And with luck, the month will end much warmer than it has begun and perhaps actually start to feel like spring.
Wonderful poem! I heard another winter storm is heading to NE US again. You in MN just might miss this one? We had -30C temps last weekend, sometimes even books can’t help. Cabin fever sets in. Hopefully not for too long, after all, it’s March already. So you’re a Game of Thrones fan?
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Arti, the snowstorm that hit the NE missed us. We got a light dusting only so I suppose that is something to be grateful for! You got cold last weekend! I thought you were warming up a bit there? Hopefully it is a short-lived cold snap. Oh yes, love Game of Thrones. I started reading the books before the TV show and am enjoying them very much.
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Ha,ha.. I love that poem! Well, we are getting sleet tonight which more than likely means the city is going to be shutdown tomorrow. I have a lot of work to do but hey, I’ll take an extra reading day 🙂 hope you have a great reading month ahead and can’t wait to hear about the Wendy Lesser book!
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Iliana, isn’t it a great poem? Ugh, sleet. Wish I got a day off from work whenever we had sleet 😉 Enjoy your reading day!
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Lovely poetry! I have also been slowly reading Holden’s nature journal. I was only able to read a small portion of Why I Read before I had to return it to the library. No renewals allowed since someone else was waiting for it. I’ll have to get back on the waiting list because I really was enjoying it. It is in the mid-40s down here, but it is also wet and I have a terrible cold, so it seems even more miserable out there than it probably is. Perfect day to stay home and read something, but alas…I did put a “Quarantine – Plague” sign on my office door to warn off any innocent bystanders. Stay warm.
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Grad, thank you for pointing me in Holden’s direction, the art is gorgeous! Too bad you had to return Why I Read to the library. I am glad to hear you were enjoying it though. When my turn comes up I won’t get to renew it either so anything else I am reading at the time will get set aside until I finish it. Mid 40s sounds divine to me right now! Sorry to hear you are under the weather. I hope you feel better soon!
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The Bears want more of your poetry. We didn’t have the snow, but we certainly know all about the seventy mile an hour winds. I haven’t come across ‘Why I Read’ before, but am off to look for a copy of it right now. I hope it’s available in the UK.
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Alex, glad the Bears enjoyed the poem. I wish I could take credit for it but it is one of those things that turns up everywhere this time of year and no one really knows where it came from originally. Why I Read is brand new so you might not find in the UK just yet but hopefully you will eventually.
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Over here we’ve had the warmest winter in about 150 years. I wish things would get a little more balanced, but it doesn’t seem to be going that way. I admire your waiting for the bus though, is there a bus stop shelter at least?
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Smithereens, wow, that it crazy! But then crazy weather seems to have become the norm. The place I catch the bus in the morning does not have a bus shelter, it’s just me against the elements! 😉
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That poem is great! I know I am fed up with the weather and we have had a ‘milder’ version of yours, so you must be very, very ready for spring. The weather people keep toying with us telling warmer weather is coming but then it never quite pans out. Sigh. February was both really long (the cold!) and way too fast (didn’t read as much as I wanted!). Yes, poor Pere Goriot–aren’t his fellow lodgers nasty? I can’t decide whether I like Rastignac or not. I am reading slowly, too, but have not had much chance with it this week–maybe over the weekend… Even with the colder weather I don’t seem to be spending as much time tucked inside somewhere warm reading. (Another sigh). Looking forward to hearing about the Edwardian Lady book–I have had my eye on her diaries, too.
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Danielle, glad you enjoyed the winter in MN poem. I totally agree about February! I can’t decide whether I like Rastignac or not either. It will all depend on whether and how he makes his success.
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Great poem! I terms of climate change, how well spread are those 9 coldest years. I’d be interested to know if they are increasing in frequency.
My Toronto based daughter is very sick of the cold, and is currently spending a couple of weeks in the US. She’s enjoyed some sun but also got SoCal’s cold snap and much needed downpour. Still, not as cold as Toronto!
As for us, February was a fast and very busy month – warm to hot – and now we are in autumn. Lovely days but …
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whisperinggums, it has been 35 years since we’ve had a winter this cold. But while we have been so cold the western US has been much warmer than usual so much so that in the US it has overall been an exceptionally warm winter. I am glad your daughter has been able to enjoy some SoCal warmth even though they got all that rain recently. Hopefully spring will make it to Toronto soon!
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And we’ve had an exceptionally warm summer with, in my city, something like 20 days over 35°C. I think I read that 8 of Australia’s hottest summers since the middle of the last century have occurred in the last 15 years. I like the warmth but that us worrying.
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