It’s sometimes hard not to get whiny in winter. With the holidays over and 2 months of cold left to live through, dreams of Spring begin to take over my brain. I start to complain that I miss colour, flowers and the smell of freshly mown grass. I have to remind myself that in the dead of last summer, when I couldn’t sleep for sweating, and the itch of my mosquito bites was driving me insane, I whined just as loud for sweater weather- hot chocolate, fluffy snow flakes falling from the sky, and the smell of fireplace smoke in the cold night air. The grass is always greener, right? When I get ahead of myself in any given season, it’s good to stop and notice how beautiful things are right where I am in time and space. For instance, in my corner of Southern Ontario, we have a lot of species of over-wintering birds, particularly ducks that gather in Hamilton Harbour. We also have hundreds of kilometers of trails dotted with waterfalls and criss-crossed by ravines. These places are treasure troves of breath taking scenery all year round. Maybe these photos will remind you that Winter really isn’t so bad and encourage you to go see for yourself!