Another Snowy Day (Apologies to Ezra Jack Keats)

We have lived in southern Ontario for twenty years; eighteen of them in Toronto, and we have never seen this much snow. It’s beautiful.


In fact, Toronto hasn’t had this much snow since 1938. It didn’t have this much in 1999, when the mayor-of-the-day called in the Army to deal with it. And even the record snowfall for Toronto is less than half the average snowfall in my hometown of Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
Small wonder that Rick Mercer makes a video like this. I have to say, the Montessori bit is right on the money.

There's so much snow on the lawn that we can't shovel any more on top. More importantly, our neighbour Dana can't blow any more snow on top and he's has to re-strategize his snow-blowing. It's important to him. The other day he drove by while Kelly was shovelling the sidewalk. He slowed down, rolled down the window and asked slowly, but meaningfully, "What are you doing?"



The whole street was shovelling, and it made for pleasant conversation. One couple was using their granddaughter's sled to ferry snow from their driveway down to a less blocked lawn. They seemed quite envious when we told them about Dana, and told us to make sure we bought him a bottle of wine. (Don't worry; we have.)


Kelly likes to keep her hand in, though, and shovels out the back entrance and the garage.

As for me? I like to watch.