Weather or not

I'm Canadian so we spend a lot of time talking about the weather eh?  We're having a very mild winter this year, courtesy of El Nino, I believe.  After enjoying a green Christmas we had a couple of snowy days and actually needed to shovel the driveway.  Although the weather forecast has been threatening us with snow or rain or freezing snow for weeks now, we haven't actually received more snow than a light dusting.

Today, however, tiny flakes are sifting down like icing sugar through a sieve.  Although they don't seem to be large enough to accumulate, the world is slowly turning white.  The forecast is calling for continued precipitation up to and including the weekend.  It would be really great if we got enough snow to go snowshoeing.  I took up the sport last winter, clomping through a local park which has a variety of terrain:  level fields, winter gardens and treed ravines with a running stream.  I enjoyed it so much my husband and I bought snowshoes, and we clomped around happily most weekends last year.  

I've missed the snow, truth be told.  Although it can be dangerous to drive in and inconvenient to shovel, it can also provide hours of fun snow tubing, skiing, skating or snowshoeing.  I grew up on the prairies so have never been a skilled or comfortable downhill skier.  However our home backed onto a golf course which had groomed cross country ski trails all winter, which we could access out of our back door.  When I married and moved to Ontario we bought a home in the country and cross country skied with our sons through the bush.  Unfortunately the increased popularity of all terrain vehicles and snowmobiles made this pastime dangerous due to the speed they travel and the difficulty we experienced getting out of their way.   

When we moved to the city I decided to try snowshoeing, because we had never upgraded our original skis and still needed to wax them.  I also didn't want to use groomed trails. In comparison, I don't seem to get as stiff and sore as I did when we cross country skied.  If you use poles while snowshoeing you also get a great upper body workout.  Also, the poles are really handy if you're going up or down hills as you can use them for support.  On the whole, snowshoeing is a lot easier than I expected, and the park that I like to use is only about a 15 minute drive away.  I can nip out, snowshoe for an hour and be home as quickly as that.  

If we don't get enough snow, I'll still be able to walk around the lake and get my aerobic workout that way.  But its winter, and I like to change activities to reflect the season.  Cool down by the lake in summer, clomp around the park in winter.

I finished reading "Mind over Mussels" last night.  It was more intricately plotted than I had first thought, and I couldn't decide whodunit until the last few pages.  Not all the characters were sympathetic, but it certainly kept my interest and I will watch for the next book in the series.