The past couple of days, Mother Nature and the Weather Man have joined together in secret talks “Campaign Anti-Spring” to conspire against us.

Neighbours have considered opening their pools and then large piles of snow gets dumped on their homes and they retreat towards the warmth of the fireplace for at least another fortnight.

We have been playing outside after school but in a way that the rest of the world would conclude we sense fear.

We’re trying to cram as many summer activities into as short a period of time as possible lest the snow plows run us over while drawing our own outlines with sidewalk chalk.

We get out our bubble makers which inevitably get doused with rain water and are no longer bubbly.

We play hide and side but another branch breaks off a tree and exposes our hides.

Someone says to me a random person, “I think it’s time to get your kids new shoes, Liz.” And I think the person thinks to themselves, “Do they think I don’t know tank-tops and winter boots are too eclectic and forward thinking for this community?”

Yesterday morning started out just above the freezing mark. We wore puffy jackets with gloves at breakfast and by mid afternoon changed into sun dresses. By 3pm we had a lemonade stand set up at the foot of the drive-way and just before bed, the heated mattress pad was set to high and every piece of flannel in the house was snuggly encasing every member of our family.

Summer, Autumn, Winter and Bazinga.