Where has our winter gone?

Photos by Barry Wallace

This is a photo, taken a year ago, of the Grackle Coffee Company on Main Street, in the village of Schomberg in King Township.  This is what winter should look like during the first week of February, right?   The photo below shows the 'Grackle' during the first week of February, this year.  

It's so mild and there's so little snow in 2012, that the folks at the 'Grackle' have even got their ice cream sign out on the sidewalk!   

I was talking today to Ken McQuarrie, longtime owner and operator of Clearview Motors in King City, about this mild winter.   Ken instantly told me how it was the same in February of 1976 (36 years ago) and that had followed a very snowy 1975.   Ken has the memory of an elephant.   He went on to say that in February of 1976, he remembers a local resident raking and burning leaves in his yard!   I certainly remember the snowy 1975.   My younger daughter, Auralee, was born on April 7th, after a 3 1/2 day storm that had us snowed in on the farm and convinced we would have to get my wife, Linda, out to the road by snowmobile.   Fortunately, it all worked out well.   Below is a photo of our farmhouse immediately after the storm of '75.

Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace