The Terrible Beauty of 56+ Centimetres

Kerry's flight was cancelled, but I still had to get to my writing workshop. They were sending someone to meet me at the junction of Pike Lake Road and Rutledge if the main roads had been plowed. I went out with Kenya to scout things out.



I opened the back door and was almost undone by the amount of snow facing me.



However; I am tough, so I snowshoed out to Pike Lake Road,1/2 kilometre, sinking up to my knees with every step. Kenya was almost buried.

The road was plowed so I would have a lift. I had considered borrowing Sarah's car but it would have meant snowshoeing 1/2 kilometre and then walking the rest of the mile to her place. I definitely could not have considered driving my car. Even if Leonard had managed to have the road cleared in time, I still would have had an hour's shoveling to get the car on the road, and I was just not feeling strong enough.


At the course, Phil Cohen went on and on about the romance of snowshoeing out to the road. It's beautiful, Phil, but the romance is a little lost on me when I am exhausted, and every step is just plain hard work.


I say that in that jaded tone we are all adopting these days, but then I look at the waterfalls spilling green out of the rock and listen to the stillness of my road, the only sound the groaning of trees as they are swayed by the wind, and I know that what I will remember of this winter is the beauty rather than the never-ending work that defeats me from time to time.