Between winter storms

 The Wise Woman, saying I’d been too focused on chores, got us out of the house and into the woods on a chilly day. We walked from Alexander Lake to the South River and back — 3 miles. It was 41 degrees, with a stout north wind.

We were between winter storms. The few blooms we saw were dandelions and henbit.

The prettiest sight was a border, the ragged edge of prairie and forest just north of the river. The tall grasses, as shaggy as old brooms in late winter, are deep brown. Mixed in with them are young pines, which are a lighter green now than you’d imagine. The contrast of colors was gorgeous, but the beauty masks a quarrel: whether that strip of land will be prairie or forest.