Winter is more or less over...

The continuation being "...depending on where in the northern hemisphere you are".  My sister sent me a photo a few days ago of cherry trees in full bloom in Washington state.  Where I am, that's something we'll see somewhere around the end of April.

This past winter was short and brutish.  We hardly had any snow during the Christmas holidays.  Actually, there was next to none.  Temperatures were cold but not much precipitation.  Then came mid-January.  By the time of the Snow Lantern Festival in early February there was enough to ensure that snow didn't have to be trucked down from the mountains.  Needless to say, I spent many winter nights cuddled up next to my kotatsu.

So what's with the title of this little blog post?  Well it has to do with the following photograph.  I had just paid my March installment on my city taxes and thought I'd take the little path through the back of Nishijo Tenmangu Park...until I was confronted with the fact the path was mostly buried under a meter or so of snow.  To add insult to injury, the snow had melted off the part of the path which goes over a bridge.  I had seen the clear bridge first and had thought to myself, "I'll just take this shortcut", when I noticed there was no easy way of getting to the bridge.  Such is life....