In my opinion, the most beautiful sound in the world is the sound of snow melting off my roof and into the gutters. It's a lovely sound and heralds the start of spring. In the space of one day, the snow in my yard half melted away and all of the icicles on my evestroughs are gone. Even though we still can't walk through our yard, the shape of the things we forgot to bring in, are starting to reveal themselves.
If you've been in a cave the last few days and weren't aware that Spring is coming, a few other sights around town will help you identify the coming season:
1) At the first sight of Spring, the bearded man shucks his outer layers and reveals his summer costume of shorts, T-shirt, baseball hat and socks and sandals. Although it is months away from actually warm weather, the bearded man's exuberance for Spring is unmatched by no one.
2) The line-ups at the car washes around town will also help you identify the season as every single vehicle in Prince George looks like it's been mud-boggin' in the bush and is in desperate need of a wash.
3) The snow piles in parking lots are unrecognizable as snow piles and instead resemble mountains of dirt and gravel. Later in the season, we'll be raking the dirt out of our yards.
4) People are smiling.
5) Children are laughing.
6) No one is wearing a toque and snow pants but instead is wearing shorts and gumboots.
I, for one, am extremely happy that Winter is moving on out and Spring is coming. I hesitate to say that we've seen the last of the snow because we all remember the years when it's snowed in May. I really really hope that it doesn't snow anymore because my driveway just can't take it. We don't shovel out driveway after February because really, the snow should go away by then. As a consequence of my shoveling protest, I actually got my van stuck in the snowbank beside my driveway and I had to get my husband to shovel me out, in March. This made me feel stupid so I'm hoping that the snow is done now and I can forget about this incident. I may even go out and break up the ice on my driveway to hasten the coming of Spring.
