Dreaming of the Opposite Part of the Year

The blizzard was a bust. When I'm promised a blizzard, I want raging wind and snowfall thick as a million feather pillows exploding. We didn't get that during the wee hours this morning. All we got a little snow and then a follow-up of bitter cold. Later this week, maybe even early tomorrow, subzero is expected. I'd say we've slid into the Pit of Winter.

Time, then, for idle thoughts about warmer days. I was looking for a new image for the desktop of the fastest of our computers today, something to replace an image from Chowder that Lilly picked up somewhere or other. (If you don't know that cartoon, your life is no poorer for it.) I picked this image:

It's a small ruin on the Fabyan estate near the banks of the Fox River, which we visited last summer (see June 17-19, 2008). It certainly looks like early summer, especially since it was after days of heavy rain. Besides its quiet lushness, I also liked the place because there was nothing anywhere to explain what it was, or why Fabyan built it, assuming he did.