Yes, you can fool Mother Nature!

Mother Nature thought she had gotten the best of us, such trickery, and yet...we are hardy souls here in Itasca County.  Month's ago Children's First! planned a "SnowFolk Festival", an event for kids to get out outside and enjoy winter.  Usually, we have heavy snowfalls and frigid temps.  About now we all are climbing the walls and have what we call "cabin fever".  Not this year.  This has been a remarkable winter.  We've had barely enough snow to cover the ground and people are complaining about how brown everything is (myself included).  It's just not right, we've been tricked by Mother Nature.  And it's been unseasonable warm, temps in the 20's and 30's -above zero.  And it really wasn't until yesterday and today that the temps dipped (well) below zero to what is normal for January in Minnesota. 

Today the SnowFolk Festival started.  When I originally heard about this festival I envisioned building a huge snowman outside our shop.  Maybe adding a Lillian's scarf and handbag, maybe a red side chair, or one snowperson standing and one sitting on the chair.  The plans in my mind became quite elaborate.  But as the festival came closer, and we still didn't have snow, I knew I'd have to get creative.  It would be fun to build a cement mosiac sculpture, but that's too labor intensive.  Or I could buy a huge sheet of plywood and cut out a snowman shape and then paint it. No, that sounded still too large of a project.  So this morning, I decided to go check my stash.  I must have something I could fashion into a snowperson.  Hmmmm, snowfence?  No, how would I make it stand against my shop wall?  A door, or screen door?  Too bulky, too big...a suitcase?   Too small  Wait a minute, look at that little green screen over there in the corner.  Perfect.  I'll paint my snowperson on the screen.  A couple hours later and it was finished!

I am proud of how our creative community has found a way to fool Mother Nature.  This afternoon there are pictures posted on facebook of snowless SnowFolks made at indoor events.  Plus there are lots of other fun events planned for kids this weekend.  Go to www.getlearning.org and click on the flyer for more information about these and all of the FREE Children First! sponsored Great Itasca SnowFolk Festival events.  

Have you heard the saying, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature"?  Well, I say sometimes you positively HAVE to fool Mother Nature!