Spring in Toronto

Alas, this is true. On my way to work in the morning the melting snow revealed still-frozen little piles of dogshit. Lovely!

Spring "arrives" in two days: in Vancouver, the cherry (I almost wrote "cheery") blossoms are already in bloom. OK, in fairness, I brought my umbrella to work once in my first Toronto winter: for that reason alone (and because my full-length down and fur parka cost more than my first car) winter here didn't feel at all like a "normal" winter, ie. rain, rain, grey skies, rain. black skies, rain.

Instead, I got sunny crisp mornings, and sparkly evenings when you couldn't actually see the snow, but the air was full of invisible, iridescent sparkles. One evening after a movie (the excellent Notes on A Scandal ) the Ninja and I both noticed Central Canadian snowflakes for the first time (he's from the East Coast, I the West): perfect, flat, sharp-edged and laughably complex little constructions, again iridescent, sometimes landing singularly, sometimes landing x-ed with a fellow snowflake, like happily copulating little snowflakes, always perfect, always sharp, unmelting, decorative in one's parka's fur.

OK. I guess winter here isn't terrible.