Green Scene

About Green Scene

The Fox keeps moving all winter, and on the coldest mornings it lifts a slow steam over the dam while the rest of South Elgin stands white and quiet around it. Wind coming up the valley loads snow against garage doors on the streets above Panton Mill Park, so an ordinary two-inch night can leave a bank at shoulder height by daylight. Plowing runs from midnight forward: drives cut square, piles placed where they won't blind a driver backing into the street, walks opened wide enough for two people to pass. Down on the river-trail side the pavement thaws late, so those runs get grit and a second look. The measure of a good night is that people leave for work on time and never think about the snow at all.