A row of icicles: the first sign that spring is coming. After a brutal and cold winter, you look anywhere you can for the sign that there may be some warming about to come. It’s similar to a cold night camping when you realized your sleeping bag wasn’t sufficient to keep you warm. You look for the first glow of sunshine.
So, too with the first icicles of winter. Generally, icicles are seen as an indication of cold and winter, but for North Dakotans, an icicle means that at some point in recent hours, it warmed up enough to melt the snow in to water which then dripped in to an icicle. Spring is on the way.
These icicles formed outside my living room window and a nearby street light caused the rosy glow — and added hint of warmth to come.