One of the greatest things my daughter and I do together is go up to our cabin in the early spring while the lake is still frozen. We walk out on the lake and look for the indentations in the ice made by little objects like leaves or sticks that melt the ice underneath them as the sun warms the surface. We actually kneel down to get a better look. It is an amazing part of nature.

We also look for the very first spring flowers that push up through the brown leaves of the previous fall and the melting snow. The flowers are so small one would never see them, but once we see one suddenly we see them everywhere. They are hepatica, and their colors are pink, purple and white, but the flowers are no bigger than my thumb nail and sit only an inch or two off the ground.

I hope that someday our daughter will be able to bring her children to our special place and show them what the wonderful and intricate parts of nature that we discovered together in the northwoods of Minnesota.