Snow can be beautiful

There are times when I really enjoy snow. In the darkness of night, fat snowflakes drifting through the streetlights and covering the ground with a blanket of soft white wool is a beautiful sight. Wet snow falling through the black branches and clinging to the naked trees, is really pretty, and in the sunlight of the day following the snowfall, the trees blossom with a spectacular beauty.
I look forward to those snowy winter days. I enjoy the beauty of those winter sights.
On Sunday, as I was leaving Kenora shortly after noon, pine and spruce trees had their branches weighed down by the snow that had fallen and was continuing to fall. The laneways that led to lodges and cottages along Highway 71 were a soft even trail of white. Most had not had a single vehicle pass down them since the snow had fallen. There were no edgy snow banks along the sides of those laneways.
The corporation looking after the Highway 71south of the Trans-Canada had salted the road and a caravan of cars and trucks crawled along a path of two tracks almost to Sioux Narrows where the road finally cleared of snow and ice.
It was not an easy drive. It was a drive where I wished that I was safely off the road, watching Sunday afternoon football. Instead those first miles from Kenora were a mixture of emotions where I hoped that my vehicle would not become an uncontrollable object spinning and careening off the edge of the road. That part of winter snow I despise.
The district avoided the freezing rain, and slush that turned to ice that was found north of us.
Winter was held off a little bit longer. We received the rain, and winter was again postponed for a few days. We will receive our share of snow. Branches will be decorated by clinging snow. The ground will receive its blanket covering the leaves. Full moons will light the glistening snow.
In the mean time, snow blowers and shovels can continue to rest.
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher