Comparative Winters

Last year we were in the midst of one of the wettest winters I’ve ever experienced in Utah. This year we are in the middle of one of the driest. The contrast is striking. I keep considering stealing one of the 50 degree days to sneak outside and do some spring garden preparatory work. Then I don’t because half a dozen projects are more pressing. Gardening can wait until we’re actually in springtime. To remind myself of what winter really ought to look like, I have this photo from last year.

I admire the lovely ice, while being simultaneously glad for the lack of windshield scraping and driveway shoveling. Yet even this dry winter is more wintry than those during my growing-up years in California. Here is a picture I took while visiting California in January of 2010.

And I think I’ll stop there. This picture is far lovelier than the brown lawn outside my window.