Here we were all complaining that winters aren’t what they used to be. Gray and dark, with an odd sprinkling of indifferent snow, white winters are now like glaciers, a victim of global warming. But as we all (and especially the people of BC) have learned, climate change simply means perpetual extremes. So naturally Toronto gets more snow than it’s had in 28 years.  Naturally, too, Canada is now ranked as the sixth most miserable place on earth, though not just because of our weather.

But here’s a long lovely essay on what winter meant and is coming to mean for northern hemispheric earthlings everywhere.