It's a good thing...

... we took advantage of that perfect winter afternoon when we did, because the next day, everything melted and we haved had quite balmy weather since. This has been a very strange start to winter and the new year especially.

I hope this is just one of those cycle things, where you have an especially warm winter one year and then you go back to cold. I 'd hate to think that this is going to be a trend. I miss real winters, when you could count on the snow not melting. When you know you had all winter to skate and slide and didn't have to rush out and take advantage of the weather conditions while they lasted. I miss having enough snow, not only to make one large quintzee, (snow fort) but a whole row of them with inter-connecting tunnels. I miss walking across a frozen river to desert islands, building a fire and roasting hotdogs in the bush and then coming back home.

I like summer and warm weather, and I always thought I'd prefer a warmer winter, but now that I live in St-Jean and actually do get warmer winters, I realize warmer winters aren't much fun. The kids don't play outside, because it's raining and chilly half the time, and if it isn't raining the ground is still humid anyway. This half-cold, half-warm weather just isn't much fun. It's like a very long early spring, and we were always inside a lot in early spring because everything was just too wet to play outside.

If we're having a weird winter this year, maybe we'll have a nice cold winter next year? Keeping my fingers crossed.