In the Snow at Kortright Centre for Conservation

Snow on Conifers at Kortright Centre, Feb. 10/13, Ontario

On February 10^th, the Sunday after the significant snowfall in Toronto and all of southern Ontario, my husband and I drove to Kortright Centre for Conservation to walk in the snowy woods.  We belong to a car sharing company and had fortunately reserved a car for the day in the hopes of having a snowy outing.  We’d missed being in the snow at Kortright the previous year when so little snow had fallen.

Snow in Woods at Kortright Centre, Feb. 10/13, Ontario

 In the morning, we walked through deep snow.  We don’t have snow shoes, so the going was strenuous but very beautiful.  Our afternoon hike was on trails that had been cleared or walked on and was easier going, but no less lovely.  The afternoon light was diffused and the snow seemed to shine from within as it softly covered the ground.  The blue grey shadows of the trees and logs washed across the warm white.  What a miracle snow is.

Snow in the woods at Kortright Centre, Feb. 10/13, Ontario

As I often write, the poignancy of this beauty in light of human contribution to the warming of the planet was with me.  I took solace in the day: in the chickadees, woodpeckers, finches, mourning doves and cardinals we saw and heard, in the trees, the stream and frozen marsh and so much that is life-giving and calls out to be seen, heard and valued deeply.

Kortright Centre, snowy woods on Feb. 10/13, Ontario