An array of wet boots, mittens and hats are drying by the woodstove.

My shamrock plant is blooming in the narrow beam of sunlight that shines through a snow-encrusted window.

The spirit of St. Patrick can turn beer green, and lucky little leprechauns may leave four-leaf clovers and pots of gold all over, but only Elsa could stop Upper Michigan dead in her tracks for days!

After this epic snowstorm, even crusty, old Yoopers like me must take a knee to show respect for Mother Nature and God.

A snowdrift waves and so does my husband during the winter storm Elsa. (Karen Wils)

I’ve often said that the snowshoe priest, Bishop Baraga, is my patron saint. (Even though the Venerable Baraga is not canonized as a saint yet, I often feel his guiding presence.)

This winter is my first winter as a retired person. In November I prayed for “a good old-fashioned winter” so that I could use the beautiful pair of Iverson snowshoes that my family gifted me three years ago. Before jobs, marriage, children and responsibilities, I snowshoed a lot. In the last few decades, Delta County has seen way too many winters with very little or no snow!

I wanted to break trail and maintain a good snowshoe trail again.

Well, sometimes, you’ve got to watch what you pray for, because sometimes God listens all too well! The Great Spirit was very generous with the snowflakes this winter season.

What else could I write about this week other than Elsa? That record breaking snowfall, those unrelentless winds, and drifts up to the top of the clotheslines (5 feet high), Elsa will be permanently etched into our memories!

I recall some other beastly blizzards over the years, like in 1978 when I was delivering the Daily Press. We had a snowstorm so bad that year that my sister Lori and I did the paper route on snowshoes. Most of the roads were drifted over as well as most customers’ porches, so we snowshoed all around Northtown. I only had to take the big shoes off once to deliver to the meat counter at Viau’s Market.

Thanksgiving weekend of 1985, after my cousin Bill’s wedding in Manistique, a blinding blizzard hit. Lori spent time in a ditch in Osier, my brother Jim and family only made halfway back to Washington Island, Wis., and it took brother Mike days to make it out to Minnesota!

Yes, we Yoopers are no strangers to the snow.

And I have had a most wonderful winter snowshoeing into camp several times, snowshoeing while running beagles and even snowshoeing up by my son who lives in Ishpeming. It was great!

Some nights I felt like I should just go to bed with my snowshoes on.

But now, after Elsa, I’m going to say, “Amen, enough is enough God. It was awesome and I thank you for ability to walk with the big, webbed shoes.”

Today is the first day of spring. Start some seeds outdoors for the garden. Wash some windows. Wear pastel colors. Tie some flies or sort through fishing lures… but DO NOT put that shovel away yet!