I’ve never needed February’s groundhog to tell me whether we’ll get six more weeks of Winter. I’m Canadian. Montreal Canadian. I figure we’ll be lucky if six more weeks is ALL we’ll get – because we usually get it well into April anyway.

And today was a prime example of why I won’t expect Groundhog Day to bring about any news. At about 10 am it started to snow. The snow was that wet, heavy kind that is perfect if you enjoy going outside to build snowmen and have rousing snowball fights. Which I don’t, but that’s beside the point. It continued to snow right up until about the time, about 3 pm, that I realized, a) I was making two whole chickens for dinner and b) I did not have enough dish soap to clean up the mess caused by two baking pans containing whole chickens. (The chicken came out perfectly, by the way, and we enjoyed hot chicken sandwiches for supper, yummy!)

At that point, I got my coat and scarf and boots and hat and gloves, and you know, my camera and I got ready to go. It was then that I noticed there was a noticeable “rat-a-tat-tat” sound at the windows. Ah, yes. Ice pellets!

So then we got ice pellets for many hours. The walk was fun. It was fine walking there, other than the one ice pellet that lodged itself into the corner of my eye until my blinking made it melt and drip out. At least the snow gave some traction unlike the icy sidewalks we’d had for three days (because apparently our city is making budget cuts by not bothering to use salt or gravel on the damn sidewalks). Coming back was less successful because not only was the wind blowing right in my face (along with the ice pellets that pelted my skin), I also had to deal with the fact that during the five minutes I spent in the store, the sidewalk plow had gone by and all of a sudden the sidewalks were slippery again. I actually ended up walking in snow banks just to have some sort of grip.

Ah well, I got a bag of chips and some chocolate out of my crazy walk.

The ice pellets continued to hit our windows for the remainder of the afternoon and evening, much to the horror of Breanna who kept running out of various rooms with saucer eyes asking “what’s THAT?!” Bedtime was interesting since she kept looking suspiciously at the window as though she expected something to shatter its way through. By about 11:30 tonight, it finally stopped and now we’re back to snow. We’re expecting about 20-30 cm of snow, depending on the area.

I know all of this is normal. I know that in this part of Canada we’re meant to have cold temperatures, wind chill factors, and a lot of snow. I know that when we don’t get it, it’s not normal or good. This is the way it is here from about November until at least the end of March if not mid-April. A fact of life for most Canadians.

But damn, I confess, I am ready for Spring. Bring it on with the buds on the trees and the May flowers. I’ve had enough of this Winter crap!