winter » Dad's Eye View

“Play Days” at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory

Here we are a full day and a half into Spring 2013, and the temperature has yet to break the freezing mark in the Twin Cities! A far cry from last year’s St. Pat’s heat wave, isn’t it?

Winter in Minnesota certainly has a lot to offer, with sledding and skating and snowshoeing, but there comes a point where it’s been winter just a little too long. And that point is probably right about now; I know that I’m anxious to take the YakTrax off my hiking boots. If you don’t think you can take another moment of frost and cold, though, there is hope: the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at Como Park in St. Paul holds on to a luxuriously warm summer day and holds it all year round.

MPR had a nice profile of the conservatory and its keepers yesterday. In addition to preserving a summer day, the conservatory also gives Minnesotans a chance to get up close and personal with things like cinnamon trees, nutmeg plants, and kola nuts. It may offer just a brief visit to a warmer climate, but sometimes a brief visit is all you need to get through the last few weeks of winter (and the first few weeks of spring …).

Winter has had a slow start around here–we’ve managed three skating trips and just one (rather disappointing) outing to the sledding hill. But there’s still just enough winter weather worth celebrating, and the Twin Cities sure know how to make the best of what snow and ice we have!

The big celebration, of course, is the St. Paul Winter Carnival, which kicked off Thursday evening with a torch light parade and continues through next week with ice sculptures, races, and lots more. A great way to get a taste of Winter Carnival is to visit Rice Park in downtown St. Paul, where the ice sculptures are being carved and the Vulcan Crew is likely to make an appearance with their antique fire truck. You can grab a hot chocolate at the St. Paul Hotel, or try out one of the food trucks the carnival has added this year.

If your tastes lean more toward the funky and homemade, be sure to visit the Powderhorn Park Art Sled Rally. The 5th annual neighborhood get-together starts at 2:00 PM today, January 28, on the hill on the west side of Powderhorn Park. You’ll see all manner of downhill contraptions–past events have featured everything from sledding beds to mosquitoes on skis–and cheer on the general zaniness of it all. If you’re a fan of the Heart of the Beast Mayday Parade or Leonardo’s Basement, this is the event for you!

And speaking of Leonardo’s Basement, the science and art education program is presenting a family Ice and Snow Festival at Griggs Park in St. Paul, 1:00 PM Saturday, February 4. Put on by the Studio Bricolage team, the festival will including skating, sledding, homemade hot air balloons, and doubtless a few Rube Goldberg contraptions to make marshmallow toasting especially complicated.

Spring Snowball . . . make snowballs!

Sure, the snow that fell overnight and this morning (almost four and a half inches at the airport!) snarled traffic, gummed up windshield wipers, and made for some pretty heavy shoveling. There’s not quite enough for sledding or snowshoeing, and seeing four inches of fresh snow after Monday’s glorious taste of Spring feels a little disheartening.

But this heavy, wet snow packs nicely into a snowball that you can hurl some distance. And it makes for a good sculpting material in case you’ve got a yen for a fort, a snowman, or something more creative. And it will be gone soon. I hope.

Your friends who are spending Spring Break in Florida, dealing with beach sand grit in their picnic baskets, sunburns from exposing their winter-hardy skin to the outdoors, and bugs much bigger than anything we find around here, will certainly be jealous when they come back and hear your stories of a snowball battle royale topped off with a steaming mug of cocoa. They probably won’t admit that they’re jealous, and might even convince themselves that they enjoyed the heat and humidity, but don’t you believe them. Spring snow in the Twin Cities is where it’s at.

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