December is a time to take in the beauty of winter

A few days ago, I took Ella for a walk at Minnehaha Park.  I love to see the Minnehaha Falls in their winter glory.  What you can't see in this photo is that in the very center above the frozen falls the creek is still gurgling and not yet frozen in mid air.

I have a long term interest in the freezing of Minnehaha Falls because of my first job in Minnesota. When I came to Minneapolis in the fall of 1976, I secured a student employment position in the Municipal Information Library located in the bell tower of City Hall.  One of my jobs was to help organize the boxes of archives from the city that were being sorted by the two amazing librarians I had the privilege of working with as I started my first year of library school.  I remember very well during my first fall that I was working with a box of photos and there were some fantastic images of Minnehaha Falls in black and white taken in winter and they were just beautiful.  Ansel Adams quality of photography.  If I had had a cell phone in those days, I would have taken a photo.  Being new to Minnesota, I had yet to experience the freezing of the Mississippi River, but my first winter was definitely one of the coldest on record and the images were just a preparation for what I was to eventually experience.  The MIL closed in 2003, but the materials were preserved by the Minneapolis Public Library, now part of Hennepin Country Library.  As many photographic materials have been digitized, I did a search in the Minnesota Digital Library, and while I can't verify this photo is from the collection I was working with, it is ironic that the photographer's last name is also Adams.  The photo that I remember was a closeup photo of the falls and it just captured perfectly the beauty of the frozen falls.  

During this winter, may you be able to slow down, take time to notice the small things around you, and maybe just find that special feeling of wonder in the winter landscape.