First Snow, No Trick...

Snow on the pumpkin?

Used to be we could always count on having the first fall of snow about the time hunting season opened up. So when I woke up to find the world 'white' on Saturday, it should not have been a big surprise.

But there is something quite magical about that first snow. It is delicate, fragile. You know it isn't going to last.

Yet it can change everything in the landscape.

It's a clear sign that the seasons are turning, once again, as they should.

Soon we'll be putting up Christmas lights, getting the cross country ski trails and toboggan hills into shape. Getting ready to welcome our Winter Guests.

Winters now aren't what they were back when Grandfather Joseph Tapley wrote in his diary "52 below. A Grand Day." In the city, in particular, winter now seems to be endless dirge of gray slush, interspersed with the occasional truly nasty blizzard descending on a population who honestly believe that All Season Tires work in All Seasons. (As our friendly tow-truck drive said to me, lo these many years past, as he pulled my car out of the ditch: "It ain't all seasons, Girl. It's WINTER."

The unfortunate result of this is that a lot of folk have forgotten how much fun a Canadian winter can be, how you can actually get out and play with the snow, ski, slide, skate, throw a snowball, build a fort, watch your breath make shapes in the air . Hear the snow crunch in the silent forests. Track animals. Get out in the fresh air with dog sleds and sleigh bells, or just use it as a great excuse to curl by the fire and watch it out the window, because it truly is beautiful. Once you learn how to dress for the conditions, and realize that winter is not a spectator season, but one in which you need to be active and participate, it's a wonderful world out there.

And I do mean, Out There. Get out of the recirculated air in the rink, get into the great outdoors.