Cranefly, warm night

Punxsutawney Phil, the "Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators"—yes, the Groundhog—saw his shadow this morning, a drizzly, warm one, and thus predicted six more weeks of winter. I had my doubts, but the forecast for tomorrow called for snow and a return of the cold, and that meant that if I wanted to refill the wood pile with logs I'd cut yesterday, I'd best get in gear. Instead of spending the day taking pictures, I spent it in the woods, working. After sunset, I settled in to watch the Super Bowl, but it soon turned into a super rout, so I headed back outside to finish splitting and stacking the last of the wood I had hauled. Every so often, I went inside to check on the score, and in coming back out, I noticed that it was still warm enough to bring insects to the back porch lights. This cranefly, a pretty hardy creature, had been dancing in mating swarms in the afternoon. Tonight, it rested, perhaps thinking about where it might go in the morning to escape winter's return—and a groundhog's successful prediction.