Mid-Winter Melt

It happens every year. It's beautiful and snowy and white and fluffy, and suddenly Mother Nature decides to gift us with a few days of unseasonably warm weather. While I love not having to completely bundle the kids up for the smallest of errands, I wish that spring weather was just in the spring and winter weather was just in the winter. Premature melts always make for wet and slushy walks during the warm-up and super icy sidewalks when the temperature (inevitably) drops again.

This year the sudden melt was especially sad since we had such a beautiful white winter happening and my dear hubby poured his first backyard rink.

The patio set looking like the fluffiest vanilla frosting cupcakes after an early heavy snow in December.

A cold January sun rising over the mini ice rink.

My darling boy admiring his first snowman... built in at least two feet of snow. (What you can't see: the snowman also has some feathery branches as a tail because it is an "Ostrich Snowman".)

The last two winter wonderland pictures were only taken a few weeks ago. This was the sad scene two days ago:

Snow banks for the rink are essentially gone and a pool of water slowly takes over the icy surface

Yesterday, it was so warm that we could actually see patches of earth popping out here and there. And of course, today it's cold again. Cold enough for a centimetre or two of snow to have fallen already and cold enough for the next little while for there to be five to ten more centimetres of snow predicted.

So my question, Mother Nature, is why? Is it because, for all our arctic bravado, many Canadians wish for shorter winters and longer summers? I'll admit that I love the freedom of a pair of flip flops. I'll admit that I miss my garden. And I'll admit that I used to be a winter hater and I would take whatever warm weather was given to me. But that was before this:

Learning a winter sport with friends

And this:

Welcoming both by boys on gorgeous winter days

And definitely before this:

Seeing both your kids on the ice for the first time.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is "Mother Nature, please let me enjoy the winter as much as possible since I've never had more reason to appreciate it than now".