finding winter – again

Years ago, I promised to avoid coming up to Northern Ontario in March, because I knew I would find winter again. But family circumstances brought me back.

The flights up were a retreat back into a frozen, snow-covered landscape. Western Pennsylvania was snow-free, so was Toronto, but from Barrie north, white covered the land.

What I found is that the snow is slowly melting and that my dad is probably in the best mindset and the best health I’ve seen him since the onset of winter. The end of the seasonal confinement and the hope of spring are bringing smiles back. He’s also figured out how to use both the wheelchair and the walker to get around and he now goes all through the house. He, my mom and I spent two hours in the sun-room, talking about all the crazy relatives and basking in the late afternoon light. The image on the right is a Christmas cactus, in the sun-room, that has decided to bloom in artless March rather than in deep December.