What I like about snow

More on snow (natch).

I look across the broad plain of the kitchen calendar, on which winter stretches far away to the end of January, trekking over February, pressing on to March... and wonder how long I will be able to stand having to find hat, gloves, coat, and boots just to pop out for a pint of milk, and then shed and array them all when I come back home. In -10 degree weather, the furthest I go from my front door untogged is to the garbage can. And very quickly back inside.

BUT I realized something the other day. The wonderful thing about freezing is that THERE IS NO RAIN. After 17 years in England, the lengthy absence of rain is definitely something to celebrate. Snow is cold but it is dry and it is quiet and it is, undeniably, beautifying. Unlike rain, snow tends to stay outside of clothing, and it is useful for fun activities like sledding, making snowballs, snow forts, and 'quinseys'. Rain, I've found, is quite difficult to throw.

Slush is another matter, being noisy, dirty, and undignified. I now understand what a new Toronto friend said to me back in October, which at the time made me doubt his sanity: 'The problem with Toronto is that it's not cold enough.'

H'm. Does that mean I agree with him? Now I'm beginning to doubt my own sanity.