O Winter, dost turn thy face away?
I miss winter. I miss the white fluffy, I miss the ice crystals floating in the air, I miss the chickadees chirping cozily to themselves as they hunt for food among my spruce tree branches. I miss the hare footprints on my lawn. I miss the blinding-sun-on-snow-bright-even-sunglasses-make-me-squint days. I even miss shovelling the walk. This has been a non-winter so far. We've only had one mildly coldish snap. It was too short, and snowless. *sigh*. I probably sound odd to almost everyone else, who seem to start pining for hot tropical locations the minute October arrives and don't stop till June ends. Well, call me an oddity. I LIKE winter and I miss it.
After all, I live in Calgary for a reason: we get winter. Lots of it, tempered by warm windy chinooks that make it all the more exciting when the next wave of coldness inexorably rolls in. I LIKE the fact that all the bugs die, that people have to be hardy souls to live here, that foreign-born plants get confused and die in our chinooks, that my nose bleeds because the air is so dry. I like bundling up and feeling toasty warm while my eyelashes freeze together and I lose all feeling in my cheeks. I like the little warm, wet patch from my breath on the scarf wrapped around my face. I even like the hat head I get from my parka. All because it means WINTER is really here, and all warm-weather loving wusses can just suck it up!!
This year has been useless. Have I mentioned it's been too warm? too bloody warm. No snow. no freezing. no nothing. I barely even need a coat to go outside. What if this climate change thing means NO WINTER??? I'll have to move north, I guess, though I think I'd miss the sun and be driven to drink like pretty much everyone else up there. Perhaps it's time to do a Snow-Goddess placating dance.
O Mighty One,
take pity
on your poor adoring
supplicant. Send snow!!
After all, I live in Calgary for a reason: we get winter. Lots of it, tempered by warm windy chinooks that make it all the more exciting when the next wave of coldness inexorably rolls in. I LIKE the fact that all the bugs die, that people have to be hardy souls to live here, that foreign-born plants get confused and die in our chinooks, that my nose bleeds because the air is so dry. I like bundling up and feeling toasty warm while my eyelashes freeze together and I lose all feeling in my cheeks. I like the little warm, wet patch from my breath on the scarf wrapped around my face. I even like the hat head I get from my parka. All because it means WINTER is really here, and all warm-weather loving wusses can just suck it up!!
This year has been useless. Have I mentioned it's been too warm? too bloody warm. No snow. no freezing. no nothing. I barely even need a coat to go outside. What if this climate change thing means NO WINTER??? I'll have to move north, I guess, though I think I'd miss the sun and be driven to drink like pretty much everyone else up there. Perhaps it's time to do a Snow-Goddess placating dance.
O Mighty One,
take pity
on your poor adoring
supplicant. Send snow!!