Welcome Back! Stick Around...

Just kidding, said Old Man Winter. He's a tease, he is. Mostly at the tail-end of the season, though, seldom at the snout end. When the season for winter is upon us it always seems, though we anticipate its arrival, to be kind of well, in a nutshell - too soon. We're never quite prepared, it seems. Winter arrives in a great humping whirl of snow, cold, ice, and wind, and we either like it or lump it.

So when winter fails to arrive as expected we wonder whatever might have happened. Did we, heaven forfend, and surely without meaning to, offend it somehow? Or was winter just in one of those moods, hermit-like, sequestering itself away, huffing in indignation at our continual surprise when he arrives, despite that we certainly know he's on the way. That's it: we've taken winter for granted for far too long and winter is feeling a trifle resentful.

Also confused. Since we always declare our love for winter and its companion snow. Yet we grumble and complain about traffic slow-downs and accidents and discomfort, and heating bills. While the kids run rampant through the white stuff, sledding and skiing and generally having one whale of a time. This must be winter's way of delivering an ultimatum; get it right, folks.

All right, we've missed you. Where have you been? Yes, we do hear the news, you've been tormenting...oops, sorry about that...delighting all those folks in British Columbia who have long settled down to the realization that winter for them, means rain, not snow. Now they've more snow than they know what to do with. You've gifted them with all those snowstorms we missed. And we had none! Well, that's past tense, to be sure.

You sent us some snow night before last, continued it throughout the day and followed up with more last night. So, thank you. Thank you very much. Mind, all that wrong-headed crabbing about driving and accidents and frozen toes and fingers won't go away; we are ingrates, I know. Anyway, we'd especially like to thank you for the delightful ravine walk we enjoyed today.

First time Button and Riley got to wear their winter boots this year, too. Along with their winter coats, of course. And they managed, somehow, not to lose even one boot, not even once. We absolutely loved the gorgeous look of the trees entirely wrapped in all that new snow you gave us. And the ground is now blessedly white, as indeed it should be, rather than the grey/brown we've been looking at for this past month or so of winter.

Everything looks so enchantingly beautiful! We do admire that landscape. It was cold, true, but we didn't mind. It was so nice seeing the wind persuade light sprinklings of snow off the tree boughs and they sparked magically as they filtered through the air in the bright sun of this day. We didn't at all mind when the wind picked up and dumped gobs of snow onto our heads, so it could melt and dribble down into our collars.

We clumped along, only now and then almost slipping on the ice underneath, for this snow is a fluffy, dry variety and doesn't stick to the ice on the trail. The sound of the snow crunching underfoot, that's the sound we like to hear. The snow seems pretty deep; how soon we forget - we're just getting out of practise, since we know we've received only 30cm of the usual 120cm for the month thus far. But we know you plan to make up for your late arrival.

Gee, it was kind of tough slogging for us old geezers, we two 70-year-olds. Quite the work-out, up hill, down dale - a lot more demanding than the usual jaunt in the ravine. Our usual 40- to 60-minute hike took somewhat longer. Button did all right, since she's a miniature-size poodle, with longish legs. But poor little toy-sized Riley experienced some real logistical difficulties. We did our best to even out the snow covering the trail, but it'll take awhile.

Riley bravely forged ahead, his boot-clad little feet pumping away. At times he assumed a continual hopping strategy to propel himself over the snow humps in his anxiety to keep abreast with us. That's another thing, he usually lags far behind, sniffling and snuffling and just generally lazing on the trail. Not so today; he more than maintained the pace, difficult though it was for him.

See, we all missed you. Welcome back.