A few days ago, driving south across the flat glacial plain of Illinois, we watched the sun set behind a white sea. The retreating winter storm had spread a few inches of snow on the fields that stretched away to the Illinois River and its backside winds sent ground blizzards across the bleak landscape.
Less than two weeks from its winter solstice, the sun disappeared below the southwest horizon and an orange glow spread above the fields, contrasting with the slate blue of the clear, cold sky; the thermometer read 17 degrees F. Skeins of geese drifted toward the river but nothing else moved in the late afternoon twilight.
Before long, the last glow of dusk retreated with the sun and a bowl of stars covered the vast till plain. It would be a long, frigid night for the wildlife of central Illinois.
