John Kitsco

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One of the NHL hockey players recently remarked that it seemed
global warming missed Alberta. Indeed - its been a brutal winter.  And you can only enjoy the snow on the spruce boughs
for just so long then you want to scream and rant and rave and do some sort of spring dance at the same time, pleading and hoping for this winter to end. I recall back at the cottage last
September my wife took a fall off the steps because she did not
expect a layer of ice as she stepped out the door. Just goes to show what a long and cold season we have had.

Nonetheless, we have taken out the garden catalogs, and
I picked up some truss for a new garden shed, since the metal
ones are history, having collapsed this winter under the weight
of snow. And you ask, but why did you not shovel them off?
Well, roads were bad, I was down with bronchitis and the last
thing on my mind was to journey out to the cottage. And thats
when it happened, in the silent moments of winter, on a cold
night, the weight bearing down, perhaps only a few deer that
may have gotten startled or a lonesome wolf passing through
the woods, hearing the groan of the heavy snow. Winter has
its special moments.

I recall one winter a few years back going through the mountains on a cross country ski trip. Sister Doris and her
handsome husband Iver, myself, my wife and our daughters
moving across Lake Louise as the ice cracked below our feet,
heading out on a trail towards Canmore, the beautiful rockies
snow covered and towering around us. A wind and snowstorm
caught us a little off-guard and by good fortune we were able
to get back to where we started before the risk of an avalanche
lest I might not be writing this now. Many recent adventures
in the rockies turned into disaster this season. As I said,
winter has its own special moments, and in the rockies
its often the dead silence right before an avalanche. Still, that
was memorable and looking at the photographs we all looked
so healthy from that adventure.

But still, we wait for spring. And spring arrives on its own time
and its own terms. I suppose all we can do is appreciate and
enjoy whatever we do outdoors - even if its only to go out and
shovel the walk.