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Column: This might not be strictly seasonal, but it’s spring

Is winter over? Maybe. Maybe not. As I write to you on this mid-March morning, it would appear the winter of 2016 is history. Even though I love winter, I am OK with that.
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The ice is melting, the water is flowing and spring is dawning. Photo by Viki Mather
Is winter over? Maybe. Maybe not. As I write to you on this mid-March morning, it would appear the winter of 2016 is history.

Even though I love winter, I am OK with that. In a perfect weather world, I’d be happier with the “seasonal” temperatures, which “should” be below freezing for most of March. But that is not what is happening this year, this month, this week … today.

Still, there is no benefit to complaining. The weather will be what it is no matter how much you or I would like it to be something else. Seasonal has not much to do with it these days. So now my thoughts turn to spring!

This morning, the world outside my window is white. I can see the trees in the yard, but not the near shore of the lake. The fog is thick, beautiful, mysterious.

On the first day of March, there were two feet of snow on top of the ice, and more than four in the forest. Light and fluffy stuff it was, we sank halfway through it on snowshoes. Over the next few days the snow on the lake will probably be gone. How much will the snow in the forest shrink? How long will the ice last on the lake? 

Lake ice! I have been watching it melt each April for more than three decades. It is one of the most fascinating times of the year. This year, I’m watching in March.

Because of all the snow, there is not a lot of ice out there. I checked in the first week of March. I had to slop through a foot of snow and a foot of slush to get to the ice. Then I cut through nine inches of frozen slush to find three inches of water underneath. Then I cut through another eight inches of ice to get to the lake water. That is not a lot of ice. I expect it will not take very long for it to melt.

In a good year, warm days and cold nights make for the best times for travel. Snow softened during the day freezes tight overnight. I can walk everywhere without snowshoes! Across the lake, through the forest, over swamps … there are no barriers. Except for the odd stream between lakes, of course.

The streams are entrancing. After all these months of living by the frozen white waters of the lake, to come upon living, moving water seems miraculous.

Spring 2016 comes early. Maybe. It is highly likely it will get cold again. It surely will snow in April. Maybe I’ll get to enjoy some long walks over the lake to gaze upon the spring streams, or maybe not. Que sera, sera. Can’t change it, might as love each day as it comes.
 
Viki Mather has been commenting for Northern Life on the natural world and life in Greater Sudbury since the spring of 1984.

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