Snow,ice,ice,snow.

Yep, that seems to be the pattern at the moment. Snow and ice dominate pretty much all of our outdoor tasks. Whether it's opening the barn doors, watering the animals, walking to the garage, or driving down the drive, conditions underfoot (or sometimes overfoot and over the knee too!) are a time-consuming and challenging occupation. It took three tries to get up the hill yesterday, because I was silly enough to stop at the bottom to pick up Cam from the school bus. Smashing ice in buckets and chicken drinkers is part of the daily routine. Skidding up and down the drive with buckets of gravel can be fun. And, hey, taking the occasional kettle of boiling water out to defrost a stuck door isn't such a big deal! The cold fresh air still makes me feel alive, and the animals hardly seem to notice.

Still, despite all the above, I must confess I do find my thoughts turn to spring occasionally. And I find myself fantasizing about wearing fewer clothes, eating fresh tomatoes from the garden and not tip-toeing gingerly about like a granny. Even the horrors of the blackfly seem to blur when I think of walking bearfoot over the grass....

But hey, our wonderful community rink will be gone in the summer, and sledging down the hill will not be an option. And there's something about those mornings when the snow glitters like, well, like glitter, and the ice makes beautiful big leafy patterns on the porch windows.

Maybe my biggest revelation about our move to Canada has been just how much I love the seasons...

When does spring start?