This winter has been particularly generous with the gift of snow, offering weekly blizzards for many weeks in a row if memory serves - though admittedly, sometimes my memory can exaggerate events of the past. I do love winter, with her beautiful vistas of blankets of fresh white snow, sparkling in the morning light, or the uncanny beauty of the moonlight reflecting off the surface of a white expanse of snow.
For a time I hang up my saddles and bridle, and replace them with snowshoes, cross country skis and ice skates, and join family members as we make the most of the cold, the ice and the snow. I haul the hay bales out to the horses in large black toboggans called Otter Sleds, and marvel at their thick winter coats, and the way they too seem to enjoy some extra friskiness on brisk winter mornings.
This year, however, my enthusiasm for shoveling snow, running the snowblower, struggling through drifts, and waiting for snowplows to arrive has been strained to the breaking point. Finally, this week however, the air has begun to carry that special scent that wafts in on the spring breezes, and the sun holds genuine warmth and with it the promise of spring. Undoubtedly Mother Nature will send us a couple more blizzards - just to keep us humble, but Spring will continue to offer her promise - that she's just around the corner.
SO MUCH SNOW!