It is the last day of winter. Although the weather app on my phone suggests that more snow might come in the next few days, the little icon on the phone comes and goes and I don’t treat these doodles as a scientific evidence. I rather trust my intuition … and my desire: today is the last day of winter.

Last week-end, there was just a little bit more snow. Not much but just enough to have a new day of recreational school cancellations.

The kids got another opportunity to 'butt sled', to build a snowman, to bake "snow and mud" milkshakes.

As for me, I do receive another happy chance to take a frozen morning walk with my camera. On this last unofficial day of winter, the diamonds sparkle in the snow. 

I am smiling in my dirty down coat. Winter has not been as horrible as I feared. Maybe I am getting used to the cold. Maybe, sometimes, I even enjoy the cold. Sometimes. (Don’t get me wrong. The warmth of the sun in the South is pure delight. I could stay for hours reading a book in the sun. And I do, whenever I get a chance. )

But the bitter cold on my face is not that bad, after all. I feel happily alive, more conscious of every breath when the cold hits us. And I feel compelled to look around: maybe it is a chance to live in this winter wonderland.

A chance and a challenge. I feel ready to embrace it again next year. I think.