January Randomness

What do blogging, thinking, and dreaming all have in common? They can be gloriously RANDOM! Yes, the photo below is a very random choice for this wickedly cold day in late January. Last night the wind was howling when I burrowed in under the covers, but this morning dawned with blessed stillness, enveloped, however, by intense cold. The temperature is exactly 1 degree above zero, and that definitely feels wicked!

One lovely Sunday afternoon last fall, Husband and I drove to Backbone State Park near Strawberry Point, Iowa, and hiked the "Backbone". The trail runs atop a wooded limestone hill above the Maquoketa River. At times, the trail appears to be made of old bones, as gray weathered limestone juts this way and that. Hikers can climb up and down, and occasionally peek carefully over sheer dropoffs on both sides of the trail.

When I was a kid, the park was called "The Devil's Backbone" by everyone, and printed that way on maps, too. But, nowadays, it is referred to everywhere as "Backbone State Park". It is an an area of unusual land formations and forests, existing randomly in the middle of the Iowa prairie.

This tiny scene came into view somewhere along the "Backbone". It was such a gorgeous autumn day, filled with warm sunshine to touch our outer selves and beauty to touch our hearts and souls!