There’s something magical about waking up with the sun.
Getting up in the dark with your hair messy and eyes still asleep, disorientated thoughts and questions floating around your head. Usually for me it's "Am I on trail today?”, “What do I need to bring?”, and most importantly “What tea should I drink?”.
Then you notice the first bit of sunlight for the day and feel clarity. The only thing that matters in this moment is to be here and to breathe.
This is why I love this job. Every morning I wake up with the woods and the sun. At times a housemate or two will be there in the early morning, all of us greeting each other with quiet “good morning”s while making breakfast.
Sometimes winter is gray and isolating. Sometimes the woods feel empty and the lake feels asleep. Sometimes a small thing will remind you of the liveliness of the summertime and tell you to enjoy this quiet while it lasts. I’ve heard a lot about how the winter months are the most chill part of this job, relaxing compared to the summer, and I think that’s how it should be. Winter is a time to regroup, recover, and reconsider. In my month being here I’ve had a lot of fun doing trail work, writing education programs, helping with tasks on campus, and even the long days doing snow removal. Spending time with the lovely people here at the SLA has been so worthwhile.
I am excited for summer though. New people, new tasks, being outside without layers, swimming! I’m a born and raised Minnesotan so I’m well acquainted with cold winters, hot summers, and the yearly cycle of wishing for different seasons when you’ve been stuck in one too long. In the depths of summer sweat, heat, and bugs wishing to be standing in the middle of a frozen lake feeling the wind blow across an open landscape or the meanest days of winter needing the summer heat to warm your bones.
One thing that gets me through long winter days when I’m not appreciating the cold is hot chocolate. A classic winter drink and an after trail work favorite, here’s a recipe for spiced up hot chocolate that has been getting me through trail days, water quality days, and snow removal:
Get your favorite hot chocolate mix or baking chocolate, some cinnamon, chili powder, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, or whatever warming spices or pie spices you have on hand. Grab some milk (whatever’s the tastiest to you) and heat it up. If you’ve got time, do it on the stove like you’re making chai, boiling the milk gives it that vanilla flavor. Stick those spices in the milk and heat them up until the milk starts to boil, turn the heat down and either stir your hot chocolate mix in or melt your chocolate into the milk. If it’s not sweet enough add in some brown sugar, molasses, honey, or syrup and enjoy!
Freda began at the Squam Lakes Association in January, and will be here through October serving as the Education lead! You can learn more about Freda here.