January and February bring unexpected visitors

January and February are difficult months on the plains of the Upper Midwest. The sky provides a gorgeous light show in mauve, peach, lavender and gold twice a day, but the rest of the time the moonscape of gray, brown, and white can get monotonous. There’s also the cold and the relentless wind and the tyranny of winter chore clothes that must be laboriously donned every time one wishes to go…