It is 1 o’clock in the morning. I am frowning at the sky, while our family dog Maxie sits beside me studying the distant treeline. Seven hours earlier we were in southeastern Wisconsin. I mentioned to Maggie that the Northern Lights were supposed to be visible tonight. ‘If only we had a dark spot to view them’, I said. Twenty minutes of hurried packing, and we were off.
This would be our second trip to the new farmstead. Or at least it was new to us. We had closed the week before, and spent that weekend becoming acquainted with all of the work facing us. The bathtub turned out not to be pink, as Maggie had thought. Biscuit, I believe, is the color. The carpet was old, stained and worn, and water was seeping in at two spots in the basement. But, looking past the myriad nail holes in the walls, we could see the house was well-built. The rooms had more outlets than our 1930s-era Earnest Flagg house in southeastern Wisconsin. The floors and stairs did not creak. The flooring on the second floor had been recently installed. All in all, what we expected. It would be hard work, but we could already envision the end result.
Later that day, we took Maxie for a walk around the property. The west half is largely pasture that the previous owner had leased to the neighboring farmer. The east half is fully wooded. We limited our walk to the perimeter of the pasture, following the fenceline and marveling at the views. March can be a lousy month in many ways. While the snow was largely gone, the soft green of spring that will rim the horizon was still over a month away. But the absence of leaves turned out to be a blessing, as the bare trees permitted us to see through the network of branches and tree trunks and appreciate the rolling topography of the land.
Unfortunately, a dark spot to watch the Northern Lights is only part of the equation for successful viewing. The moon was to rise, and be nearly full, around 10:30PM. Well, maybe we will see something before the moon rose, or before sunrise, I had thought to myself as we drove west. It was harder to ignore the clouds that slowly swept in from the southwest as we drove. These were the clouds I was frowning at as I shivered against the cold night. Maxie looked up at me, happy to be there. I patted her head, and we slowly walked back to the house.
Σχόλια